Fallin' To Pieces
by insert witty
Summary: Nancy Takaishi is dead and Tk comes to live with Matt and their father. But the problem is that mr Ishida is dying of a serious lung-disease... How will Matt and Tk make it without niether parents nor money? Finally Finished!!!
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, blah blah blah, so on, so forth...  
  
  
  
Falling To Pieces part one:  
  
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}  
  
"Matt?" Matt, wake up..." Tk shook me out of my peaceful sleep. I leisurely opened my eyes and peered at the clock. The red digital numbers showed 03.22 in the morning. I mentally kicked myself for oversleeping again. My boss was probably going to fire me now.  
  
"I had that nightmare again." Tk said quietly, looking down on his feats.   
  
"That one about mom?" I asked. My younger brother nodded, then broke down in tears. I wrapped my arms around him and slowly rocked him back and forth, while whispering soothing sounds in his ear.   
  
"Why did she have to die, onii-san?" The smaller blond hiccupped, burying his face in my chest.   
  
"I don't know, Tk." I said honestly, feeling my own throat ache a little. Even if I hadn't seen mom so much after the divorce, I missed her too. But it was of course the worst for Tk. "I guess it just was her time to go."   
  
It had already been three weeks since the accident. Two trains had collided in the middle of the night, and our Mom had been on one of them. She had been travelling home to Odaiba from an old friend in Highton View Terrace when it happened. Now, Tk was living with Dad and me.   
  
"I need to get to work. You think you can go back to sleep now, squirt?" I wondered.   
  
"Sure... But, Matt, you shouldn't work so early in the morning. You'll be too tired to go to school." Tk said, looking me in the eyes with his own ones that were red with weeping. He let go of me, and went back into my bedroom.   
  
I was sleeping on the couch in the living room until we could afford another bed.  
  
I yawned and stretched my complaining body, and then I pulled on my trousers. As I went into the kitchen to get myself something fast to eat I pulled a black shirt over my head. The hair could wait until I got to the supermarket I worked in.   
  
I grabbed the last apple in the fruit bowl and took a piece of paper, writing down a quick note to Tk, before I ran out of the apartment.   
  
  
{~Tk's POV~}   
  
I woke up by Dad's coughs. I swiftly hurried out of my brother's room and ran into Dad's.   
  
"Dad? Daddy!" I yelled when I saw him twist and turn in his sleep, coughing like a madman. I helped him to sit up and he finally awakened. He was still having a hard time breathing, but as he calmed down he managed to stop coughing.   
  
I knew that soon he'd be gone too, just like Mom. The doctors said that it only was a matter of time, and Dad had wished to die at home. I guessed that those cigarettes finally took their toll.   
  
"Are you okay?" I asked carefully as he lay down in the soft bed again.   
  
"I'm fine." He choked out. I gave him a questioning look, but let it go. "You should eat some breakfast and get to school, son. And can you wake up Yamato too? I don't want him to be late either." Dad said.  
  
I nodded slightly. Dad didn't know that his older son was working right now. Matt hadn't wanted him to know, because he'd be worrying too much. After all, this could be the last day he was alive. And if it was, he shouldn't waste it by worrying or feeling guilty or any having any negative feelings at all. None of our friends knew about it either. None of us wanted them to pity us, so we hadn't told them yet.  
  
I forced a smile and noticed that Dad's lunch wasn't on his nightstand. Matt had probably forgot about it, I thought. And who could blame him? My fifteen-year-old brother was already having two different jobs. I went to the kitchen where I found a note from Matt. He always left me a note in the morning.   
  
"Hey little bro. Could you check on Dad for me? I didn't have time, because I was late for work. We'll probably see each other in school. Bye! /Matt." It said.   
I poured up some milk in a glass and made myself a sandwich. I hoped that Matt hadn't skipped breakfast again.   
  
When I finished my sandwich I quickly washed the glass and cooked some pasta to Dad. Then I went back into my brother's bedroom, looking for some thing to wear. I decided that my ordinary outfit would have to do, and got dressed. I picked up some books I needed for school today and put them in my bag.   
  
"Bye Dad! I'm going to school now!" I yelled, but didn't get an answer. I thought that he'd gone back to sleep and opened the unlocked front door. Sighing, I understood that Matt doubtlessly had forgotten to lock it. 'Well,' I thought, 'I can't do anything about that now.'   
I locked the door and hurried away to school.   
  
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}   
  
I was sitting in the warm classroom just like every other Thursday morning. The teacher was talking about some war. I didn't care to listen, because this particular history teacher hated me for some unknown reason, and didn't give me more than a C+ anyway.   
  
I wondered where Matt was. It wasn't like him to be late. At least not like this. I mean, he use to be maybe five or ten minutes late every morning, but not thirty. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was cutting class.   
  
The teacher talked and talked with her toneless voice the rest of the lesson, and when she dismissed us, she reminded us about the homework.   
  
"Um... Excuse me, Mrs...um..." I really need to learn her name, I thought to myself. " Well, anyway, what was the home work again?" I asked.  
  
The teacher didn't look very pleased with me not knowing her name, since she's been one of my teachers the whole term.   
  
"Write a short presentation about the war we were learning about." She said snappily.   
  
I knew better than to ask her 'which war' we had been learning about, so I rapidly got out of the classroom.   
  
Confused, I went to my locker and shoved the history books inside of it. I gave the schedule a quick glare. English.   
  
I sighed, and even more confused, I realized that Matt still wasn't here. I could always wait for him, I thought, closing the locker.   
  
So I leaned back on the locker, and opened the English book. If I was going to wait, I could at least study some. But after five minutes, Matt still hadn't showed up. I waited for five minutes again, but he didn't show up. And now I was probably going to be late myself! I shut the book and ran to the classroom. I was kind of angry with him now. I mean we had a paper to turn in today, and we wrote ours together and he was the one who had it in his bag! And he was almost never at home when I called him either!   
  
I went into the classroom, mumbling something about 'stupid blonds, who can't keep their promises'.   
  
"Taichi, where's your and Yamato's essay?" Mr. Ryokan, the teacher, asked. Crap. He was one of my favourite teachers, and now I had to disappoint him.  
  
"Um... You see-" I began but was cut off by the door slamming.  
  
"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Ryokan!" Matt said, panting. He'd obviously been running.   
  
"That's okay, Yamato. Now, where's the essay?"  
  
"Right here." Matt said, handing him the paper. I sighed with relief, and forgot I was mad at him for a while.   
  
"Good. You can take a seat if you don't want to stand." Mr. Ryokan smirked.  
  
Matt swiftly got to the back of the classroom and sat down by me.   
  
"Why were you late? You didn't even show up in history class. I know history class is plain boring but you shouldn't cut class." I whispered.  
  
"Um... I just over slept." He hesitated. I knew that was a lie, but when Matt didn't want to talk it was almost impossible to make him. I decided that it would have to wait until this lesson was over.   
  
The minutes flew by and before we knew it, Mr. Ryokan said that we should hurry to our next class. Somehow, Mr. Ryokan made it fun to learn, and his lessons always seemed shorter than the others.   
  
We picked up our stuff and went out in the corridor. I decided to get things clear with Matt.  
  
"Did you really just oversleep today?" I asked him. Matt looked surprised for a moment. But then hid it with his ordinary 'coolness'.   
  
"What do you mean?" He replied nonchalantly, starting to fiddle with something in his bag.  
  
"I don't recall you cutting class very often." I said. Matt just rolled his eyes and said that he'd already told me that he just overslept. I sighed.  
  
"You've been really distant the last weeks, Matt. You're never home, never got any time over to be with your friends, you never even return my phone calls any longer. You want me to continue?"  
  
"I've been busy."  
  
"Sure. Busy. Riiight." I said sarcastically. I grew even more annoyed when Matt turned away to leave. "Don't walk away from me. I'm your friend, but if you don't feel like if you can trust me, I don't know." I waited for an answer, but when the reply didn't come I kept on talking about all the ways he was annoying me. "Man, why did you get the crest of friendship? You're not bothering about other people at all! When was the last time you paid attention to anyone else but yourself, huh?" I continued. When I saw that Matt didn't even seem to listen anymore, I decided that this way probably was the wrong one, if I wanted him to open up. So I walked a little faster so we were walking beside each other.   
  
"Hey, I'm sorry..." I said sheepishly. Matt still ignored me, and I chose to change subject. "Oh yeah, we've got a new homework in History. Something about a war or something..." I didn't notice that Matt's breaths became heavier and heavier. "...And you know me, I didn't listen to that teacher, whatever her name is, so I don't know which war, but we could always ask Spencer. He use to know stuff like that and..." I stopped as I saw that Matt still didn't seem to listen. "Matt? Hello, earth to Matt, do you copy?" This wasn't like him at all. Matt was never this stubborn with being mad at me. "If it's those things I said before, I'm sorry. I didn't mean a word of it."  
  
He still didn't reply. "Matt? Matt! Do you listen to me? Hello? You seem to be so 'detached' today." I continued to babble.   
  
  
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}  
  
"Matt? Matt! Do you listen to me? Hello? You seem to be so 'detached' today." Tai gabbled. I did listen to him, but most the things he said seemed to be out of importance. It felt like I was in some sort of trance. That's when it hit me. I had forgot to fix Dad's lunch when I was hurrying away to work. "Shit." I hissed and started to walk even faster.   
  
"What?" Tai asked confusedly. I didn't care to answer. I was to busy thinking about how I would be able to get home to the apartment and get Dad some food. He was way to sick to out of the bed.  
  
What would happen if he tried to fix his own lunch? He could collapse! And then he'd just lye on the cold floor until Tk or I came home.  
  
I felt my breathing get heavier but didn't care. My stomach ached in a strange way, and I stopped walking.   
  
Tai, who'd almost been jogging beside me, stopped surprised and went back a few steps.   
  
"What is it, Matt? Maybe you should go to the nurse or something?" Tai said, resting a hand on my shoulder.  
  
"N-No... " I managed to choke out. Tai probably hadn't got a clue why I acted like this. Tk and I hadn't told anyone about the 'situation'. Tai didn't know I was working either.  
  
I just stood there like if I was paralysed or something, not knowing what to do. My muscles were tensed and it felt like I almost wanted to cry. I felt claustrophobic in some way, just like if these billions tiny little hands were pulling me in all different directions at the same time, each one wanting me to do something.  
  
"Chill, man! What happened?" Tai's worried voice said. But just like before, his words didn't seem to matter.   
  
I ran out of the corridor, not caring that the other students were looking. I heard Tai's footsteps behind me.   
  
When I made it out of the school building I ran straight over the asphalted schoolyard. Almost no kids were out today, because of the dark and rain filled clouds hanging from the sky. My feats just kept on moving and hit the hard ground hard each time I took another step. My panting became worse and worse and my entire chest felt like if it was going to blow any minute.   
  
I then felt something harsh tackle me from behind. I cried out in pain as my face hit the grey asphalt. The heavy thing on my back got off me and rolled me over. When I wasn't facing the ground any longer, I saw that it was Tai who'd tackled me. I felt blood flowing out of my nose. I had landed on it when I fell.  
  
"What's wrong with you today?" Tai asked angrily. He grabbed my shoulders and banged me to the ground. I grimaced in pain, but still felt that strange 'alarm' in my entire body. It seemed to suck all energy out of my body. At first my hands and legs felt numb. Then the 'unfeeling-ness' continued to move up my chest and neck. Thousands of small tiny dots were covering my sight.   
  
"Matt? Matt? You hear me?" Tai asked. He sounded worried.   
  
It felt like if I slipped away, not hearing anything, not seeing anything and not feeling anything. All there was, was just a calm and cold darkness that covered all of my senses...  
  
  
  
Please Review.  



	2. Chapter two

A/N: I just wanna say a few things before I'll start with chapter two... You'll find some hints of sorato in this ficcie. But don't worry if you don't like sorato. Nothing's really gonna happen between those two.   
Blah-blah, let's get on with the story.   
  
P.S... Why would I wanna kill Matt?   
  
  
Fallin' To Pieces part two:   
  
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}   
  
"Matt? Matt?" My best friend just lay limp in my arms. The dark red blood kept flowing out of his nose, and I shook him violently. "Wake up, you baka!" I yelled, but his blue eyes remained closed.   
  
I felt icy raindrops falling on my head, and decided to get Matt inside. And whatever he said before, he needed to get to the nurse.   
  
I carefully lifted his lifeless body and peered through the raindrops. Then I ran towards the school building. I shoved the doors open with my foot and hurried through the corridors.   
  
"Hi, Tai!" I suddenly heard a female voice call. I turned around and saw Sora come jogging. When she saw whom I was carrying, she gasped. "What's wrong with Matt?" Sora asked, visibly concerned. I knew that something was 'going on' between those two, but didn't have time to think about that now.   
  
"I don't know! He was acting really weird and then blacked out on the schoolyard!" I almost yelled. Sora looked a bit surprised by my lack of self-control, but let it go.   
  
I started to dash to the nurse's office again, with Sora right behind me.   
When we finally got there, I started banging on the door with my left foot.   
  
"Just a minute, please!" I heard the nurse's voice call.   
  
"Well, it's an emergency!" Sora answered, just as nervous as I.   
  
"Okay..." We heard the lock in the door go up, and then the nurse opened. She had worked on the school as long as I could remember and probably close to her retirement. "Yes?" She asked.   
  
Sora stepped aside and I showed her the limp form of Matt I held in my arms. Maybe it looked worse than it really was, because the blood from Matt's nose were running down his cheeks and colouring both his and mine clothes red.   
"Lay him down on that bed over there." She ordered directly and pointed at one of those bed-like furnitures that's often found in school nurses' rooms. "What happened?"   
  
"At first he was acting pretty strange, and then, he ran outside and blacked out!" I gave her a fast explanation.   
  
"And what about the nose?"   
  
"He fell and hit it." That was um... well, not actually a lie, though I didn't tell her about me tackling him.   
  
"Was he stressed when it happened?" Then nurse asked, while calmly checking Matt's pulse.   
  
"I dunno. I mean, what's he got to be stressed about? But when you say it so... maybe he was a little stressed." I said truthfully and glared at Sora who stood in a corner, eyes fixed on Matt.   
  
"What have he been eating?"   
  
"I haven't got a clue. But he's not on drugs if that's what you think."   
  
"No, of course not." The nurse said. She laid a hand on Matt's forehead and then wiped away the blood from his face with a small handkerchief. "It could have been a panic attack that made him act strangely. And I don't think he's been eating properly, and that caused the black out." She made a quick pause, and then continued. "I think he's got a cold, nothing major, but he should stay here and sleep for a while, maybe two hours. When he wakes up he has to eat something. I'm sure that will make him feel better." She finished.   
  
"Okay..." I said.   
  
"If you want to, you can come back in one and a half hour or two hours." The nurse said looking at me and Sora, who still hadn't said anything. I gave the clock on the wall a quick glare. 10.46 a.m.   
  
  
{~Sora's POV~}   
  
Tai and I walked out of there in silence. I don't know about Tai, but I was a bit shaken up. I mean... I really like Matt. I don't know if I like *like* him, but I like him... I don't know. I'm unsure what to feel when I'm in the same room as him. But then all of this sudden, when I'm standing there in the corridor, Tai comes running carrying Matt's limp and bloody body! I was really relieved when I realized that the blood covering his face was only a nosebleed and that he'd be okay.   
  
"My next class doesn't start in another fifteen minutes." Tai said, breaking the silence.   
  
"We've got that class together, so I don't have to get to class in fifteen minutes either." I replied, forcing a smile.   
  
"Oh yeah, I forgot." Tai smirked sheepishly. But I had known him long enough to see that the smile was just as faked as mine.   
  
We continued walking under an awkward silence. I guessed it was my turn to break it this time.   
  
"Panic attack?" I said and Tai gave me a questioning look. "Well, I mean, those are caused by to much stress, right? And what's Matt got to stress about?"   
  
"I dunno. But he's been really busy the last weeks. Or 'weeks'... We're talking about months here."   
  
"Maybe we should call him-"   
  
"Don't you think I've tried? He's never home!" Tai cut me off. "Maybe it's his band or something?" He guessed.   
  
"But he's never spent so much time with them that he haven't got any time left for his friends." I objected.   
  
"Yes I know, but what else could it be?" Tai asked. I shrugged. Honestly, I had no idea what was wrong with Matt.   
  
"Maybe we should just let it be. Who knows, maybe it'll be okay with time?" I suggested. Tai nodded slightly, probably feeling just as confused as me.   
  
  
{~Tk's POV~}   
  
Boring, boring, boring, I thought. I looked at the clock. Twelve thirty-nine. Only twenty minutes left. No matter what the teacher, Ms Kinutani, said, math was *not* fun. I yawned and wished that I were just as good at math as Michiko. She could ask questions that almost made Ms Kinutani squeak with happiness and gratification and then draw all kinds of mathematical symbols on the big whiteboard on the wall, which no one except Michiko and Ms Kinutani herself knew anything about.   
  
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. I lazily turned my head around and saw a big brown mane through the small glass window in the door. What's Tai doing here? I thought confused.   
  
Ms Kinutani opened the door, a little annoyed with having to interrupt the lesson.   
  
"Yes?" she said.   
  
"Could I please speak with Takeru?" Tai asked.   
  
The teacher nodded and turned to me. I quickly got up from my chair and sneaked out of the classroom. I could see a slightly desirous Daisuke gaze at the door from the corner of my eye. So, I'm not the only one who doesn't like math, I thought. Ms Kinutani closed the door behind me. I have to admit that I was glad to be excused from math class.   
  
"What was it you wanted to talk about?" I asked Tai. "Is it trouble in the DigiWorld again? Cuz' if it is, we should probably get Davis too."   
  
"No, the DigiWorld is probably just fine." Tai said.   
  
"So, what is it then?"   
  
"It's Matt. He got some sort of attack and stuff before. But he's okay now. I just wanted to know if you wanted to see him. He's in the nurse's office right now with Sora as company. I'm on my way to the cafeteria to get him some lunch. If you want to, you can help me with the food right now." Tai blurted out.   
  
"Sure... What kind of attack?" I wondered as we started walking towards the cafeteria.   
  
"Um... Panic attack. It's caused by stress I think. And he hadn't eaten enough or something." Tai said.   
  
So, he didn't eat breakfast after all, I thought.   
  
We went into the cafeteria and explained the situation to the chef, and got permission to take some food with us in a doggy bag.   
  
I hoped that my brother was okay.   
  
Tai and I set off to the nurse's office. It was pretty close to the cafeteria, so it didn't take long.   
  
I heard two voices talking softly inside. One of them was Matt, and after a while, I recognised the other one as Sora.   
  
Tai knocked on the wall. Matt and Sora turned around and saw him.   
  
"Hi" Tai said.   
  
I stepped inside of the room and handed the bag with the food to Matt.   
  
"Hey, Tk. What are you doing here?" Matt asked and placed the doggy bag on the small table beside the bed-like-sofa-thing he was lying on.   
  
"Tai told me about you, and I just wanted to see if you were alright." I said simply.   
  
"I'm okay. I just got a small headache." he replied. "You think I can borrow that desk over there to eat on?" he wondered and pointed towards the clean desk.   
  
"The nurse is on lunch, so I think so." Sora said.   
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}   
  
I heavily raised myself up but before I even had taken one step on the cold floor, I felt my head go woozy. Small black and purple dots started covering my sight and I bent down, putting my hands to my temples.   
  
"Matt?" I felt Tai's hands grab my shoulders and drag me back to the 'bed'. I was laid down on it again and after a few seconds, the dots disappeared and my head cleared up.   
  
"Man, you need food. What did you have for breakfast?" Tai said, tossing the small bag of food in my lap. I blushed in an unnoticeable shade of red, remembering that I hadn't eaten anything all day.   
  
"Well, I better get to class. I've got English in five minutes." Sora said looking at the clock.   
  
Tai glared at the digital numbers on the wall and got visibly paler. "Ah, gym class started ten minutes ago! Coach's gonna make me do like a hundred push ups!" he shouted, and with that he ran out of the door.   
  
"Bye!" Sora smiled and left Tk and me alone in the room.   
  
Honestly, I was a little disappointed with her leaving, but shoved it aside. She couldn't like ME, could she?   
  
I sighed softly and opened the bag in my lap and stared at the food inside. Then I remembered Dad. I felt my body stiffen and I grabbed Tk's arm.   
  
"I forgot to make Dad's lunch!" I said, my voice probably shaky.   
  
"Calm down, onii-san! I cooked him some spaghetti before I went to school." Tk said, pushing me back onto the bed.   
  
I sighed with relief.   
  
"Thanks"   
  
"Any time" Tk shrugged.   
  
I started eating the stuff he'd brought me. I really felt better after that.   
  
"You're not cutting class right now are you?" I asked with my mouth full of bread.   
  
"No. I was excused twenty minutes before math class really ended, and my next class isn't starting in another twenty."   
  
"Okay." I continued eating.   
  
"Look, Matt. I don't want you to wear yourself out... I mean panic attack?   
You're having stress breakdowns at the age of fifteen." Tk said, grabbing my hand.   
  
"I can handle it, Tk."   
  
"No! You can't expect me to believe that you can manage two jobs AND school! The thing that happened today was proof enough wasn't it?" my younger brother yelled and my eyes went wide with surprise. "And I don't care if you think you 'can handle it'!" he continued. Suddenly tears welled up in his blue eyes. "I'm sorry, onii-san... I-I just... I just don't want to loose you too... I would be all alone..."   
  
"Shh... I'll take it easy, all right? I'd never leave you alone." I comforted. "But the money on the bank is already gone... And the bills don't pay themselves. You're too young to work, so I'll do that, but if you want to help so much, you can always do some of my chores that I don't have enough time left for."   
  
Tk nodded and dried his tears. "Ok."   
  
I gave him a reassuring smile.   
  
"It'll be just fine. I promise, okay?"   
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}   
  
I quickly packed my things and closed the locker. My last class had ended twenty-five minutes ago, but I had gotten detention. I had hoped that I would get a chance to talk to Matt, but he'd already gone home.   
  
I walked through the long corridor, which almost seemed ghostly when all the students were gone. My footsteps echoed through the walls and when I finally left the school building I recognised a certain redheaded girl. She had bended down to pick up her papers from the ground.   
  
"Hey Sora!" I called and ran up beside her.   
  
"Hi." Sora said. "I dropped my bag. Typical me, huh?"   
  
I smirked and helped her with the papers.   
  
"Have you talked to Matt?" I asked. She shook her head.   
  
"No. Haven't seen him since I left the nurse's office. Why?" she looked a little worried.   
  
"Nah, nothing. I just wanted to talk to him." I explained.   
  
Sora shrugged and we started walking.   
  
"Well, you can always call later, him when you get to your house." she suggested.   
  
"I guess." There was an awkward silence.   
  
"So... Could you say hi to him from me?" Sora asked, trying to sound nonchalant.   
  
"You really like him, don't you?"   
  
She blushed into a deep shade of red. "W-What makes you think that?"   
  
"You're blushing..." I teased, feeling my smile grew wider as her face turned redder.   
  
"Oh." was the most intelligent thing she could think of saying.   
  
"Honestly, I think he likes you too." I said.   
  
"You think!?" Sora yelled before she could stop herself. She cleared her throat.   
  
"I mean, you think?" she said in a much more controlled tone.   
  
I nodded.   
  
"I think he does." The happiness practically shone through Sora's entire body. I smiled at my long time friend who were acting like any girl in love, and not the tomboy she was otherwise.   
  
"Bye! See ya tomorrow." I said when we reached my house.   
  
"Bye!" Sora yelled and waved.   
  
I dug around in my bag fore a while looking for the keys. I found them and got inside. I could smell the fresh paint from the sunny walls. I hadn't really liked the colour when we bought it, but when I thought about it now, it looked pretty nice.   
  
Mom and Dad were still redecorating and rebuilding almost everything in the new house, but I liked it here. They'd told me that they wanted more space to live in and bought this. It was really much bigger than our old apartment!   
We had moved in a week ago so there were still some cartons with stuff in on the floor.   
  
"Tai's in the house!" I yelled, wondering if anyone else was home too.   
  
"Hi, Tai!" I heard my sister's voice from upstairs.   
  
I went into the kitchen and made myself some sandwiches. Then I climbed the stairs up to the second floor where I found Kari lying on the floor, playing with the cat.   
  
"You want some?" I asked and held a sandwich right under my sister's nose.   
  
"No, I've already eaten."   
  
"More food for me." I said and shrugged. I opened my mouth, ready to take a bite of my ham sandwich.   
  
"Or wait a sec." Kari quickly snatched the ham and gave it to Meeko.   
  
"Hey!"   
  
"Oh, c'mon Tai... Just look at him." Kari giggled.   
  
Meeko, who just had finished the small piece of ham, lay on the floor prancing like a maniac as Kari stroked him behind his ear.   
  
"Aw... Whosacutie? Whosacutie? Whosalilkittycatcutie?" Kari said in an annoyingly silly tone while petting Meeko, who squirmed around on the floor when she stroked the soft fur behind his ears and on his neck.   
  
I just rolled my eyes and finished my 'ham-less' piece of bread.   
  
"I'm gonna call Matt." I said and disappeared into my room.   
  
I picked up the phone and dialled his number. Then I waited while the signals beeped. I waited. And waited. Just when I was about to hang up, I heard a voice.   
  
"Ishida residence."   
  
"Hi, Mr Ishida, it's Tai! Is Matt there?" I asked.   
  
"No cough


	3. Chapter three

Fallin' To Pieces part three:   
  
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}   
  
The autumn night's air was fresh and chilly and the lamps and few cars on the road lit up the street I was walking on. I had just seen a film at the cinema. Something with a lot of action, humour, good-looking women and all that other stuff that made me like Bond movies.   
  
I had tried to get in touch with Matt, but of course, he wasn't even answering his mobile.   
  
As I turned right by a corner, I saw some dark figures in an alley lighting some cigarettes. The gang laughed and I thought that they probably were drunk or something. I put my hands in my pockets and tried to look as big and though as possibly.   
  
When I had passed, I let out my breath that I realized I'd been holding.   
Suddenly I heard the beeping melody of 'William Tell' and picked up the small silver grey phone from my pocket.   
  
"Hello"   
  
"Hi, it's Kari!" I heard my sister's voice say.   
  
"Oh hi, Kari."   
  
"There's trouble in the DigiWorld, so I won't be in the house when you get home." she said.   
  
"Okay. Don't let Davis get you." I smirked.   
  
"What?" Kari asked.   
  
"You know exactly what I mean, my dear sweet baby sister." I said and chuckled as 'my dear sweet baby sister' sighed sharply.   
  
"Well, I'll let you know that Davis isn't coming because he was sleeping, so there'll only be me, Tk, Ken and Yolei, 'my precious adorable big brother'" Kari said sarcastically.   
  
"Haha, okay. See you tomorrow then."   
  
"Yeah. Bye!"   
  
"Bye!" I heard I small click in the mobile and hang up as well.   
  
Putting down the mobile, I felt I was a little thirsty and searched the pocket for some money. When I found some loose change, I decided to buy a soda.   
I saw a Seven Eleven down the street and hurried towards it.   
  
Opening the door, I felt the nice warm air inside of the shop warm up my face. I looked around and saw some bottles of coca cola in a refrigerator with a glass door. I took one of those and went to the cash register. I also grabbed a newspaper laid it and the coke on the counter.   
  
"Um... Excuse me? I'd like to buy something." I yelled and waited for someone to come.   
  
To my surprise, the young man who came was looking like Matt. The same blond hair, blue eyes, slender body... I realized that it was Matt! I mentally smacked myself in the head for being so slow. But after all, 'Taichi' *does* mean 'Thick One'.   
  
"Matt? What are you doing here?" I asked stupidly, but I couldn't help it. I was so surprised to see Matt working here of all places!   
  
"Hi. Working." he said shortly.   
  
"You never told me you worked here." I scratched my head.   
  
Matt didn't answer, but took the paper and coke.   
  
"You want the receipt?" he asked.   
  
"Sure. Why haven't you told me that you were working?"   
  
"You haven't asked."   
  
"What, can't you tell me anything on your own any longer?" I was getting mad at him again.   
  
"Why is it so important to know that I'm working all of this sudden?" Matt questioned.   
  
"Well, you're not talking to me about anything! What happened? It's got to be something, because we could talk about everything before!" I shouted and stubbornly put my hands on my hips.   
  
"So I have to report every single thing that happens to me to you?"   
  
"No! But..." I swore silently. When it came to verbal fights, Matt was more powerful than WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon together.   
  
"The store closed five minutes ago." Matt said in an icy tone.   
  
"What?" I asked.   
  
"Seven Eleven. That means it's closing eleven o'clock."   
  
I looked up at the clock on the wall. Matt was right. That only made me madder.   
  
"You're the most self absorbed arrogant ass I've ever met." I hissed sharply and walked out of the door. I didn't really mean what I said, but it felt like if I had to say something like that to him.   
  
I turned around for a second and then desperately regretted my words. Matt stood there, and for a quick moment, the almost unbreakable brick wall he'd been using to hide his soul with was gone. And I saw all the pain and hurt in his azure eyes.   
  
I really wondered what it was that he didn't tell me that made him feel so bad.   
The rare moment disappeared in an instant and the usual cold ice I'd seen so often in his eyes back in the DigiWorld came back.   
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}   
  
"You're the most self absorbed arrogant ass I've ever met." Tai hissed and left.   
The words hit me like iron fists in the stomach. Was that really the way he thought about me? Maybe Tk was right... Maybe all of this was too much for me to handle after all...?   
  
I shoved the thought's and feelings away, and buried them deep inside.   
  
Starting to close the store, I took the money from the cash register and put them into a locker in the small office behind the wall by the counter.   
  
When I was done, I turned off the light and easily locked the door.   
  
I took a deep breath of the fresh air and started walking. The wind blew playfully in my hair, but didn't help me very much with keeping myself warm.   
  
Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me. I carefully gazed behind me and saw maybe five or six guys. The dark figures didn't look too friendly and was both bigger and probably around four years older than me. I sped up my pace a bit.   
  
I could hear them talking with their low hushed voices. I turned right, and they turned too. I was getting the feeling of that they were following me.   
  
My stomach twisted and I walked even faster. When they started walking faster too, I was officially scared.   
  
I heard the gang come closer and closer behind me and I decided to run. My feats quickly moved forward on the hard pavement.   
  
"Get him!" I heard one of them shout and after a minute of running, I was tackled in the back and pinned to the ground by one of the biggest of them.   
I wheezed under his weight. This wasn't like wrestling Tai. It was meaningless for me to even try to fight him.   
  
"Gimme your money." a guy with way too baggy jeans hissed.   
  
I didn't answer. I was too shocked, and besides, I didn't even have any money.   
  
"I said; give me your money!" the same guy yelled and I felt a fist hit me in the jaw, making me bite my tongue hard.   
  
"I-I don't have any..." I said weakly and another fist hit my face. They dragged me into a dark alley, searching my pockets. My mobile and the keys were the first things they took. When they were done with emptying my pockets, I felt how a booted foot hit me in my stomach over and over again.   
  
I heard a nervous laugh from the right and then received a hard kick in the back.   
  
My body ached, and it was getting harder to focus my eyes. The pain was still increasing but somehow, it seemed more distant every minute that gone by.   
Something warm and sticky ran down my face.   
  
"Maybe we should go now, guys..." I heard one of the useless cowards say.   
  
"W-what, are you scared?" another one of them asked, trying to sound tough.   
  
Pathetic asshole, I thought dimly.   
  
I guessed that the first one didn't want to seem scared, because he threw a fist at me. It connected with my chest, making me loose my breath.   
  
The 'baggy-jeans-guy' stepped on my left hand, almost crushing it.   
  
A knife glimmered in the dim light of a by passing car outside the alley. My brain registered the stinging feeling of something sharp cutting into my arm.   
  
"Geez, we don't wanna kill him, you bastard! You want to get busted for murder? Put the knife back!" an angry voice said.   
  
Something hard hit the back of my head, and everything went black.   
  
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_   
  
My eyes slowly and painfully cracked open. I forced my screaming body up into a sitting position and gasped as I saw the dark red liquid on the ground. Blood. My blood. It was mainly coming from my head and from a smarting cut in my upper arm. The cut wasn't big, but seemed to be pretty deep.   
  
I... need to get home..., I thought feverishly and climbed on my feats. I could hardly stand because of my throbbing body.   
  
I don't remember so much of how I got to the apartment. All I can recall is that it was really dark and that the pain almost was unbearable. The cold chilly air sent shivers down my spine.   
  
When I finally reached the front door of my apartment, I remembered that my keys were gone.   
  
I tried to wipe the blood that had trickled its way down my face away but all that I did was to smear it across my cheek.   
  
Desperately, I rang the doorbell, but no one answered.   
  
I sighed shakily, and hoped that the door was unlocked. I pushed down the door handle. Surprisingly, the door opened.   
  
I stumbled inside.   
  
"Tk? Dad?" I called.   
  
The reply was nothing. I looked around in the apartment. It was silent and gloomy.   
  
Too silent. And almost suffocating gloomy. Something wasn't right... I just knew it.   
  
That's when I noticed the dark stains on the floor.   
  
I took a few steps forward and saw that they were coming from Dad's bedroom. I shakily got inside of the room, but it was empty. Dad had almost certainly gotten up from his bed, which was stained with the same dark blood as the floor.   
  
My lip was trembling and with burning tears running down my cheeks, I followed the blood on the floor through the hall, to the bathroom.   
  
I forced myself to open the door slightly. I didn't want to see what I was about to see, but glared into the quiet room anyway.   
  
He was there. With his face to the floor and blood still dropping out of his mouth, his dead limp body was lying on the bathroom rug.   
  
"No... Please..." I half whispered, half pleaded, while getting into the room.   
I sat down on the floor and rolled Dad over. I gently stroked his cold face.   
Many people say that you look like if you're sleeping when you're dead... But Dad didn't look like if he was sleeping at all. He just looked... Dead... Hollow. He did look peaceful though, but it wasn't my Dad who was lying there in my lap. It was more like a shell. The thing that made him my Dad was gone.   
  
I now know that there is something like a soul. And that the soul leaves the body when the body dies.   
  
My salty tears were mixed with my own blood that was running from my head. I wrapped my arms around Dad's body and cried violently, my throbbing body shaking and my breaths short and gasping.   
  
All you could hear was my lonely sobs. All you could see was the dim bluish light shining weakly on Dad's body and me, reflecting my tears.   
  
  
{~Sora's POV~}   
  
There wasn't a cloud on the dark blue sky and its stars were shining brightly down on the city.   
  
I was on my way to Matt's place. Yes, I had finally gained enough courage to do so. And I was determinated to find out what it was that was troubling him. And then just maybe if he liked me...   
  
I shivered a bit and pulled the jacket closer around me. It was really getting colder outside.   
  
I was thankful for the dim luminosity the lamps and the very few open shops gave. Wishing for warmer clothes, I continued walking and after a couple of minutes I could see the building Matt lived in. There were only a few apartments that had the light on and I hoped that Matt wasn't asleep.   
  
What was I thinking, going to Matt's apartment now? I thought, annoyed with myself. I decided that it was to late to change my mind now, and trotted inside of the entrance.   
  
It was warmer here and the walls were painted in a happy yellow colour.   
  
I picked up the small note from my pocket where I had written Matt's address. Six floors. I got inside of the elevator and pressed the button. Then I waited until the doors opened again.   
  
As they did, I suddenly heard something strange. When I looked around, I saw that one of the front doors to the apartments were open. I realized that the weeping-like noise was coming from inside of it. I took one step closer and accidentally placed my shoe in something on the floor. I lowered my gaze and quickly pulled my foot away as I saw the small pool of blood-red liquid.   
  
I put a hand over my mouth to keep myself from gasping and looked into the apartment again. Similar little puddles were leading into two different rooms.   
  
I know that you shouldn't go into other people's homes, but what was I suppose to do? Walk away, and pretend I hadn't seen anything?   
  
I was now sure that the noises were sobs, and carefully walked into the dark hall.   
  
I followed the red stains on the carpeted floor into the living room. My stomach ached with fear of what I could find in the apartment.   
  
The sobs were louder now, when I was closer to the source. I turned my head towards the bedroom that some of the blood led into, but then decided to look in the other room they were going into, and the sobs were coming from. The door to that room wasn't completely open, like the bedroom door, so I couldn't see anything inside of it.   
  
With trembling hands, I pushed down the handle and the door easily and silently slid open...   
  
  
  
Please review.   
  
/ThatGirl^_^


	4. Chapter four

A/N: I got so happy for all of the good reviews that I decided to post chapter four right away... Here you are! Luv ya!   
  
  
  
  
Fallin' To Pieces part four:   
  
  
  
{~Sora's POV~}   
  
What I saw inside of the room, I will never forget.   
  
The dim bluish light shone softly through the bathroom window, into the room and on the pale blond boy, sitting on the floor. His shoulders were shaking with sobs, and the light seemed to make his tears glow with own luminosity. He had wrapped his arms around the body of an older man who lay limp beside him.   
  
Blood was running down from his head and coloured a few locks of hair dark red.   
  
"M-Matt...?" I said unsteadily.   
  
He didn't seem to hear me.   
  
I unsteadily walked into the room and lay a slightly trembling hand on his shoulder. He gasped with surprise and jerked away from my touch. Then he saw that it just was I, and cooled down a bit, but couldn't stop the tears from flowing.   
  
I had never seen him so 'off guard' before. The tears made his azure eyes seem clearer than crystals and they displayed so many feelings. Pain, hurt, guilt, sorrow, worry... the list goes on.   
  
His lips were trembling and he tried to say something, but all that came out was an odd choked sob.   
  
My eyes fluttered between Matt and the motionless body.   
  
"Is-Is he..." my voice faded.   
  
Matt nodded feebly and buried his face in his hands. I hurried to his side and hugged him tightly, letting him cry into my shirt like a small child.   
  
I don't know how long we sat like that, but the only thing I could think of was the dead body beside me and Matt. I didn't even know who it was. And Matt who was bleeding from both his head and a deep cut on the shoulder. What had happened here?   
  
"I think we should call somebody..." I said dazedly, reaching for my mobile. It lay in the pocket of my jacket that I hadn't taken of yet.   
  
I didn't know who to phone, my mind was too clouded by thoughts, so I simply called the first one in the phone book.   
  
I waited quietly for someone to answer.   
  
"Yeah, hello." Finally somebody picked up the phone.   
  
"H-hello... Is it Tai?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
"It's Sora. I'm calling from Matt's apartment... An-And... I..." I faltered.   
  
"What is it? You sound like if you just seen a ghost." Tai said.   
  
"Tai, something's happened... I don't know what, but..." I looked at Matt. He had picked up the dead man's hand and held it between his own two ones. The tears had stopped falling a while ago, and now his eyes were staring empty at   
something I couldn't see. "It's bad..." I continued.   
  
"What?" Tai wondered.   
  
"Can you come over here? I'm in Matt's apartment-"   
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know, you've already said that. You seem to be pretty shaken up, maybe I should talk to Matt instead?" Tai sighed.   
  
I tried to give Matt the phone, but he didn't react.   
  
"Matt?" I whispered, but he didn't even move. I guessed he was in some sort of shock.   
  
I put the mobile to my ear again.   
  
"Tai?"   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"I don't think he want to talk right now..." I said weakly. I was close to tears now.   
  
"Sora, I'm getting worried here. What happened?" Tai asked again.   
  
"Can you come to Matt's apartment? Please? I-It's important..." I hung up. I felt I couldn't talk to anyone anymore. Tears pricked my sight and I closed my eyes, leaning back on the wall. The salty water ran down my cheeks, but I didn't care enough to wipe it away.   
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}   
  
I was in my new room (I had finally gotten a bedroom of my own!) when I received that weird phone call from Sora.   
  
"Sora, I'm getting worried here. What happened?" I asked for the second time. Is sounded like if she was on the urge of crying. And Sora doesn't cry that often, like Mimi or some other girls.   
  
"Can you come to Matt's apartment? Please?" her voice was barely a shaky whisper, which made me even more confused. What had happened to her? And to Matt, who didn't seem to want to speak to me... or her. "I-It's important..." she faltered. There was a little 'click', and then it was quiet.   
  
"Um... Hello..?" I tried, but she had hung up. "Sora, you still there?" I asked, just to make sure that she wasn't still on the phone. When I didn't get an answer, I hung up as well.   
  
My thoughts swirled around in my head. Had Sora really been serious? Of course she had, stupid! She had almost been crying!   
  
I unsteadily got off my bed, which I had been sitting on while talking to the girl, and tossed the wireless telephone on my pillow.   
  
Should I go to Matt's place...? I mean, just to check if things were all right with him. People, who wanted help when something terrible had happened to them, didn't call me very often, you see, so I didn't quite know what to do. I guess I was a bit shocked...   
  
Anyway, I opened my bedroom door and ran downstairs.   
  
Taking my jacket and hurriedly shoving my feats down in my sneakers, I yelled something like "I'm going out for a while, Kari! Don't do anything I would have   
done. BYE!" to my little sister, and got outside of the house.   
  
I noticed that it was a lot much colder now than before, when I'd just had that argument with Matt.   
  
I exhaled noisily and scowled; annoyed with myself for trying to force information out of him that he obviously didn't want me to know about. Honestly, I thought that he should have told me about what was troubling him (it had to be *something*!). But since I knew what had happened the last time I had tried, I really just should've let it go.   
  
But still...   
  
This was all just too confusing for me.   
  
I continued to walk down the street when I heard some loud laughter's.   
  
"Oh no." I whispered to myself. It was the same gang that I had seen earlier that night. I don't know why, but people like them make me nervous.   
  
They were walking in the opposite direction I was, and when they passed by me, I could tell from their smell that they had been drinking more alcohol since I first saw them in that dark alley.   
  
'Well, they seem to be proud and happy with themselves.' I thought and slightly turned my head so I could see.   
  
The gang slurred and a guy with really big and baggy jeans was bragging with what I guessed was, a new mobile.   
  
'He's gonna have to watch himself, or he'll drop his trousers.' I thought, while snickering quietly at my own joke.   
  
I felt safer now when they had passed by, and let my mussels, which I had been trying to taut to make myself look bigger, relax.   
  
I gave my wristwatch a quick glance and turned to the right by the bus stop. I could see Matt's apartment on the sixth floor now.   
  
Seeing that I couldn't see the light turned on in the windows, I slowed down a little, wondering if Matt even was home or if he was asleep or something.   
  
I then decided that it was best to just check on him to see that every thing was okay, and then blame the whole thing on Sora if he was okay after all.   
  
So I sped up my pace again. When I got to the door, I swiftly pressed the code on the smooth buttons and opened the door.   
  
I yawned and rubbed my hands together, trying to warm them up a bit.   
  
After that, I gave the stairs a quick glance, but decided to take the elevator, being too lazy to climb the stairs all the way up to the sixth floor.   
  
The elevator made soothing bzz-noises and I found it hard to keep my eyes open. But I was shook awake from the drowsy daze as the box like thing made a sudden bump when it stopped.   
  
The doors slid open and I yawned once more, slightly closing my brown eyes again and then walked out.   
  
But when I saw the door into Matt's apartment, my eyes snapped open and stayed that way. Why would anybody leave the front door open?   
  
Inside of the apartment it was dark, but I could still make out the blood red stains on the linoleum floor. When I looked down on the floor beneath me, the same kind of stains was there.   
  
I froze for a moment and didn't even notice the choked sobs that were coming from the open door.   
  
When I finally got myself to take my gaze away from the little blood pools, the fear cut through my chest.   
  
'Oh my god, what could possibly have happened here?' I thought, feeling the panic rise in my throat. I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths and forced myself to calm down.   
  
When I had done so, I heard the sobs.   
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}   
  
I think that I was going into some kind of shock. I don't know for how long I had been sitting there, with my father's cold hand between my own.   
  
Sora sat beside me on the floor, silent tears running down her cheeks. I was only semi-conscious. I saw what was going on through my eyes, but didn't really care. It's hard to explain it. I mean, if someone would try and speak to me, I wouldn't reply. Because I just wouldn't care...   
  
I was a little scared too. What would happen to Tk and me now? We couldn't possibly live alone, could we? Would the government send us to new families or orphanages? Would they split us up? So many questions... They made my head hurt.   
  
Sora had just talked to somebody on her mobile. She had tried to make me speak with whoever it was whom she had been speaking to, but I hadn't even made a move. Not even blinked.   
  
I wondered if that had upset her, because she started to cry shortly after. Under different circumstances, I would've been devastated if I feared that I had hurt her.   
  
My head was throbbing violently. It felt like if someone was banging on it with an iron hammer.   
  
Suddenly, Sora's restrained tears became open sobs. Her shoulders were shaking and she hid her face in her hands.   
  
I could hear that somebody else was stepping into the apartment through the open door. Not that I did anything about it though.   
  
"Matt?" A shaky voice called from the hall. I recognized it. It was Tai. "Um... Hello...?" he continued. He sounded worried, and for a moment I wondered why.   
  
Sora slowly lifted her head and snivelled a bit. She unsteadily got on her feet, and then she peeked out of the bathroom door.   
  
"T-Tai!" Sora staggered out to the dark hall.   
  
"Sora!? What... What happened? I-I-I mean..." my best friend stammered.   
  
Sora tried to speak, but no sentences escaped her lips, only incoherent words about me and the blood, how she had come to the apartment and then had found me.   
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}   
  
"A-And there's blood... And Matt... He's... A-And... When I came here... I don't know..." Sora sobbed.   
  
I was pretty close to panicking myself now. Here I am, in my best friend's apartment (the same best friend that I had had a huge argument with the same evening, that is), it's blood on the floor, one of my other closest friends are here too (the same girl who happens to really *really* like my best friend, that is), and she's crying and hysterically babbling about something that I don't have single clue about. And, MAN, am I now both *considerably* confused and rather afraid of, whatever it is, that is wrong with Matt.   
  
I soothingly put my hands on Sora's shoulders in a desperate try to cool her down.   
  
"M-Matt... And the body... I don't even know..." she hiccupped.   
  
"Sora, relax. I can't understand what you're saying." I said in the calmest tone I could manage to speak in for the moment.   
  
Sora took a deep shaky breath, but she seemed to regain some of her self-control.   
  
"It's Matt... I don't know what happened, but there's a body in there... And Matt doesn't want to say anything, a-and he's just silent now, not speaking, but when I first came here, he was crying, and I don't even know who it is! I don't know, but I-I..."   
  
It was easy to tell that Sora was way to upset over this to speak about it any more, so I simply hushed her and pressed down the smooth metallic handle of the bathroom door to see what was going on with my own two eyes.   
  
  
  
Please review.   
  
/ThatGirl^_^


	5. Chapter five

Fallin' to pieces part five:   
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}   
  
I almost couldn't believe my eyes. I bet they had popped out two inches from my head when I saw Matt... and... what!?   
  
No wait, this couldn't be right...   
  
My best friend was holding someone... And I knew who it was. But... Why? How?   
  
"Matt?" I said and wondered if he would answer me at all. He didn't.   
  
My mouth hung open while I was trying to figure out something to say.   
  
I heard Sora carefully approaching behind me. She probably had the same problem that I had, because she was just as strangely quiet as me.   
  
Suddenly, I felt a burning tear roll down my cheek. I hadn't realized that I was crying.   
  
I took a few steps forward, so that I was closer to Matt. I watchfully avoided coming to close to the dead body of Mr Ishida, as if I thought he would jump up and bite me or something.   
  
I slowly leaned forwards and rested my hand on his shoulder.   
  
My lower lip was trembling and I felt my eyes grew wider when Matt unexpectedly turned his head towards me.   
  
I gasped at his face. The face itself was not showing any hints of emotion. It was almost looking empty. Blank. But his eyes... I could discern so much in just a very few moments...   
  
I've never seen his eyes that way before. Not even in the fight we had earlier in that SevenEleven. I know that Matt usually keeps his feelings well hidden, behind the thick brick walls he's been building over the years, but now...   
  
What I'm trying to say is that the walls were gone. Completely.   
  
I've always wondered what kind of feelings he had hidden inside, and I had tried to make him open up to me, but learnt that I couldn't force him; The walls only grew more solid that way.   
  
And now, when they were gone... For the first time in my life I saw what he felt. And it wasn't pretty.   
  
I had thought that most of the barrier had broke down back in the Digiworld, when Devimon had separated all of us, that time when I and Agumon had found Matt and Gabumon in that snowy freezing landscape and we fought.   
  
My chest ached because of the horribly sorrow and pain I saw in my best friend's eyes.   
  
I jerked away from him, surprised.   
  
Tears were forming in Matt's eyes but they didn't fall.   
  
Once again, he seemed to daze away. It was like if he just left Sora and me behind and walked away into his thoughts. He hung his head down, and looked at his father with an empty gaze.   
  
Suddenly, Sora rushed past me. She sat down on her knees and swiftly wrapped her arms around Matt. I guessed she wanted him to 'stay with us'. She rocked him back and forth like if he was a little child that just had lost his favourite toy and Matt simply followed her movements, his eyes just as wide and crystal-like as before.   
  
  
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}   
  
  
Tai was here too now... I wondered why. Had Sora called him? Or had he just passed by and decided to pay a visit?   
  
I didn't know.   
  
He tried to get my attention now. Should I care?   
  
I just wanted to cry, to let the tears flow. I had already cried in front of Sora... but then she had been sad too... and she had started to cry... Was that because of me or because of dad?   
  
Tai had been shocked when he saw dad. That was why he had been so cautious when he approached me. It had been rather easy to tell.   
  
I wondered if he would break down in tears if I cried... I wanted to cry, I really did.   
  
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.   
  
Was Tai still sitting there in front of me? I lifted my head.   
  
Yep, he was.   
  
He suddenly jerked away from me with a strange mix of surprise, fear and worry plastered on his face.   
  
What, was I disgusting him, or something? He was my best friend!   
  
I felt how tears formed in my eyes and once again I let my head fall and fixed my eyes on dad's lifeless face.   
  
I didn't want this... I had known that this day would come, but I hadn't wanted to think about it. So when it came, I was so damn unprepared! But how could I have been strong for Tk if I had brooded about dad? And how would I've been able to work and earn money to pay the bills?   
  
I felt so small...   
  
And my head throbbed. Those guys who had mugged me had hit it several times... It hurt... Maybe if I just could pass out...? Just leave for a little while? I didn't want to sit here with my dead father in my arms; I wanted to be somewhere warm and safe, where it was dark and where I could just sleep. Forget about it all.   
  
Then Sora rushed to my side. She hugged me and rocked me back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... I let myself be held and comforted like a little kid. I even think I snuggled closer to her, finally letting my tears flow.   
Those quietly falling tears soon became sobs and I once again felt Tai's hand on my shoulder.   
  
It felt good to be comforted...   
  
Under different circumstances my face would have been crimson if I ever got a hug from Sora. But now, that didn't seem to matter. I just leaned closer for her to soothe me.   
  
I felt Tai rub my shoulder slightly, wanting me to stand up so that we could get out of the bathroom.   
  
What could I do? I mean, I couldn't just sit there for all eternity... I think that that was the first time since I came home that night that I actually thought a reasonable thought.   
  
I got on my feet, my head spinning and throbbing, and with Sora and Tai by my side left the room. I didn't dare to look behind me, knowing that I would see dad's body on the floor.   
  
When we came into the living room, my legs seemed to stop functioning and I just plopped down on the carpet. Though my body was aching because of that gang that had been kicking me around, I felt sort of... Numb.   
  
My arms hung limply by my sides and once again, I found myself staring unseeingly into nothing.   
  
I distantly heard Tai picking up the phone, dialling nine-one-one. His voice was raspy and still sounded a bit shocked, but I don't blame him; it's not every day you find your best friend sitting in the bathroom with his dead father in his arms.   
  
Kind of ironic. I've always been the one to take care of myself, but when it's my time to work for money, I fail. Big time.   
  
What, why it's all my fault?   
  
Well... There's must've been something more I could have done... I dunno what, but there must've been something!   
  
Or... maybe there wasn't anything that I could've done...? I hoped so, I didn't think that I would have made it if I had found something that I could have done to prevent this.   
  
But Tk... What would happen to us now!?   
  
My brain was working franticly, trying to figure out what I would do now. How we could survive without any parents. Orphanages...? Never ever in my whole life. Maybe If I quit school and started working more? That would give us money wouldn't it? I remembered the panic attack I had had not too many days ago but forced the thought away. I was strong and tough and solid and I could make it.   
  
...And I knew that I was lying to myself...   
  
I let out a bitter sigh, looking down at my open hands.   
  
What if they split Tk and me up again? What if we'd never see each other again?   
I felt a thick painful lump in my chest. It made it hard to breathe.   
  
A drop of blood landed on the soft carpeted floor. The cut on my shoulder still bled.   
  
I didn't really notice anything around me for the next fifteen minutes. I think it was because neither Sora nor Tai could figure out any thing sensible to say.   
I heard how other people rushed into the apartment through the open front door. They yelled and quickly found dad in the bathroom by following the clear blood puddles on the floor.   
  
After a while they made their way into the living room.   
  
"What happened? Who made the call?" a deep voice that must've belonged to a man asked. I didn't feel like if I had the energy to look up that moment so I didn't know what he looked like.   
  
"I did." Tai said. I heard him stand up from the armchair and walk over to the man, who obviously was one of the paramedics.   
  
"What happened to him?" I could almost see how he pointed at me.   
  
"We don't know, I just came by and..." Sora didn't need to finish the sentence; the man seemed to understand anyway.   
  
"Okay, lemme have a look at him"   
  
I heard how the man walked closer until he was right by me. Then he sat down, trying to find my gaze.   
  
"What's his name?" he asked.   
  
"Yamato Ishida, sir." Tai's voice said.   
  
"Yamato? Do you hear me?" the man asked. When I didn't answer he continued: "I'm Max Ozaki. Do you know what happened here?"   
  
I didn't really want to talk but the man seemed to be a nice guy.   
  
I nodded slowly.   
  
"Okay, good. Do you know who the man in the bathroom is?"   
  
Once again, I nodded.   
  
"Who is it?"   
  
  
"My dad" my voice came out as a weak whisper. I heard Sora gasp softly and lifted my head enough to see out into the hallway where some people were carrying a barrow with the dead form of my father on it. They weren't rushing or anything now, as they had done when they came into the apartment at first. But after all, they didn't have to rush, since dad already was dead. There was nothing they could do for him now.   
  
"Okay"   
  
I would have cried more, but it felt like if I hadn't got any tears left. Now, I just felt empty. Empty and so very tired. My head spun around like if it was one of the footballs that Tai used to kick up and down, up and down on his knees, trying to not let it touch the ground a single time.   
  
"Was there someone in your apartment?" Max asked, probably thinking that someone had broke into the apartment and beat dad and me up. I guessed he was referring to the cuts and bruises on my body.   
  
I shook my head and immediately regretted it. Now, it felt like if I was about to black out.   
  
"We need to get you to the hospital, Yamato. I think you need a few stitches in your head and arm, nothing major"   
  
I felt how Max investigated the cut on my shoulder. Then he pulled up a little box of plasters and carefully put it over the cut as a temporal solution of it. He couldn't really do anything about my head; there was too much half-dried blood in my hair to see anything, so he let it be.   
  
"C'mon, Yamato" Max slid an arm around my chest to help me to stand. He more or less dragged me up on my feet.   
  
Sora and Tai rushed forward to help me too. I felt kind of crowded there, but the spinning in my head increased the moment I had gotten up from the floor.   
  
I put a hand on my forehead, feeling how my vision started to blur. Black dots came out of nowhere and no matter how much I blinked they wouldn't disappear. I felt very light-headed and woozy. Then my vision started to crack up and the black dots took the control.   
  
The last thing I saw before slipping away to the wonderful darkness of unconsciousness were Sora's reddish brown eyes searching mine in a worried gaze.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Please review.   
  
/ThatGirl^_^ 


	6. Chapter six

Fallin' to pieces part six:   
  
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}   
  
When my eyes cracked open, I was confused. I was in a plain white room, which I never seen before and harshly bright sunshine was shining into it through the big window. When I shifted, to look to the other side of me, I felt a sharp sting in my upper arm. I gave it a glance and saw nine stitches in it. My head also hurt a bit.   
  
I couldn't remember a thing for a split second. Not even my own name.   
  
But as I kept on digging through my aching and confused mind, searching it for any memories, pictures, sounds or voices, my whole life came washing over me in a second. I stiffened. It wasn't a very pleasant experience. It was actually rather frightening...   
  
Maybe there was some one else in the room too? I didn't want to be alone for the moment.   
  
"Sora...? Tk? Tai?" I tried.   
  
Something moved to my right and I forced myself to turn around.   
  
"Y-You awake?"   
  
The tearstained face of my little brother greeted me with big blue eyes. He then threw himself at me, hugging me as closely and as tightly as he could with all of his strength.   
  
"Onii-san..." Tk sobbed and hiccupped into my shirt. I hugged him back the best I could, the thoughts of what that would happen to us now coming back to haunt my mind.   
  
"When I came home... the door was closed and locked, but when I got inside... there was blood! On the floor! A-and then Kari called... She told me what happened... Said Tai had told her and that he was at the hospital with Sora and you..." Tk blurted and then made a quick pause and sniffed miserably. "I can't believe he's gone!"   
  
Then the question that I had been afraid of hearing out loud came:   
  
"What's gonna happen now, Matt?"   
  
"I... I dunno..." what other thing could I have said, that wouldn't have been a lie?   
  
Tk didn't say anything more and neither did I. I just let him lie by my side in the hospital bed, my arms wrapped protectively around him as he fell asleep. After a few minutes, I was sound asleep as well.   
  
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_   
  
  
When I once again woke up, my head was clearer than the first time. I noticed that Tk wasn't there. I sat up slightly in the bed and saw another person in the room.   
  
She looked like some kind of journalist or lawyer with her strict clothing and the tight knot on her neck that she had tied her dark hair into. Her skin was pale and her makeup was just as stern as the clothes. She cleared her throat and pushed her rectangular black glasses up higher on the nose bridge.   
  
I didn't like her from the start.   
  
"I am Mie Matsuoka, lawyer." Mie didn't reach out her hand to shake mine. "You will call me ms Matsuoka and I will have to ask you some questions, mr Ishida."   
Okay, *ms Matsuoka*, I thought sarcastically. It felt kind of strange though... to be called mr Ishida, I mean. That was what people used to call Dad most times...   
  
A terrible sorrow welled up inside of me.   
  
"Lets get started then, mr Ishida." Ms Matsuoka said rather harshly and my sorrow turned into dislike of the lawyer that sat before me.   
  
I gave her my iciest glare I possibly could give anybody but didn't say anything.   
  
"How did you get those bruises on your body and the cuts?" she asked.   
  
"I was attacked by some gang before I came home." I answered shortly. Even though I didn't really want to utter a word to this nasty woman, I understood that it was necessary. But that didn't stop me from being as rude as I could be against her.   
  
And she wasn't actually polite or nice to me either; she treated me like if I was an object, a job assignment or something.   
  
Ms Matsuoka scribbled down my words in a little grey notebook.   
  
"Where?"   
  
"In some alley, I don't really remember."   
  
"Had you had any troubles with the gang before?"   
  
"No"   
  
"What were you doing out in town?"   
  
"I was walking home from work."   
  
This was starting to sound like a cross-examination. The way she always scribbled down my exact words in her notebook began to seriously annoy me.   
  
"Why were you working?"   
  
"'Cause my dad couldn't, god damn it!!" I finally got enough of her and yelled.   
  
For a nanosecond, she looked a bit taken aback, but then her ordinary cold expression came back and she continued with her questions with the same monotonous voice.   
  
I don't know how long that visit of ms Matsuoka lasted, but it felt like an eternity.   
  
She at length picked up her stuff and rose from the chair she had been sitting on in the other corner of the room.   
  
"We will see each other tomorrow again, mr Ishida."   
  
I resisted the urge to groan and roll my eyes when she said that.   
  
Ms Matsuoka left the room without saying goodbye.   
  
Just when she had closed the door, it opened again and Tk, Sora and Tai walked in.   
  
"What a bitch." Tai stated, looking back out into the hall before closing the door. "She slammed the door shut right in our faces"   
  
"How do you feel?" Sora asked, sitting down beside me. She laid a hand on mine, sending shivers down my spine.   
  
I just looked away, but then my eyes met Tk's.   
I felt slightly crowded when Tai came and stood beside the bed too, his brown eyes searching mine just as the others' ones.   
  
"Uh... Okay I guess" was my reply.   
  
It was clear that the others didn't believe me, and Tk's sad eyes haunted my mind.   
  
But when I met his gaze, I still saw a flicker of hope left in them. I wondered if I also had a flicker of hope left in my own eyes.   
  
  
  
{~Tk's POV~}   
  
I wondered where dad was now... I wouldn't allow myself to think that he was just dead and gone forever. I pictured him in heaven, walking around and doing whatever he felt like doing or him being reborn in another part of the world.   
  
I looked down on my brother. They had washed his hair up, so there wasn't any blood left in it, but it looked different when Matt hadn't been there to brush it himself, and he was awfully pale. The doctors said that it was because he had lost quite a bit blood when he had been cut and kicked around by that street gang.   
  
Matt gazed up at me, meeting my eyes with is own ones. They were so similar to mine, but I wondered if I also held that pained expression.   
  
The doctors hadn't let me see Dad's body. But Matt had been the first one to find him. Maybe that was why he looked so upset.   
  
Well, I wasn't really unaffected either. The thoughts of what we would do now circulated in my mind, and I was sure that the same questions were in Onii-san's head.   
  
And I felt a horrible sorrow ache in my heart when I thought of Dad.   
  
After a lot of arguing, the doctors had told me that Dad probably had woken up by a coughing fit with blood coming up with it (the reason for the blood on the floor) and then staggered into the bathroom, where he collapsed and died. They had of course finished it by saying that he had died without any pain. I didn't know if I believed the last part of it, but it felt better to think in those terms.   
  
He had died only a few minutes before Matt came home and I kept on thinking that if it hadn't been for that stupid gang, Dad would be alive...   
  
Tears welled up in my eyes and I tried to force them back.   
  
"Nah. That won't do any good, just let them fall." Matt whispered, gently grabbing my hand. He too had tears in his eyes and I sat down on the bedside, allowing myself to be held like a little teddy bear.   
  
I had vague memories of him holding me like this when we were younger, before the divorce when the fights and arguments were the fiercest and loudest. I think that it helped both Matt and me through those times.   
  
I felt Matt's burning tears fall down in my hair, but I didn't mind.   
  
When we finally let go of each other, a blush coloured Matt's cheeks slightly red and I soon noticed why. Sora still sat by Matt's side, her reddish brown eyes full of compassion and meeting Matt's, and Tai sitting on a small metal chair in the other corner of the small room looking at us.   
  
I quickly wiped my tears away, feeling my own face flush as well.   
  
I once again turned to Matt and Sora and saw that they still had their eyes locked firmly. I just knew that there is something going on with those two...   
  
  
  
  
  
{~Matt's POV}   
  
The following days, nothing special happened. I had to stay in bed for about another week or maybe even more because of the concussion of the brain and some interior damages those dim-witted guys in that gang had brought me.   
  
Izzy and Joe popped in and read me a mail that Mimi sent to me from the states one day and another one; the newer digidestineds paid a visit.   
  
Sora, Tk and Tai were the ones who came by mostly.   
  
Ms super-bitch-Matsuoka also made appointments and tortured me with her questions. I soon grew to loathe her with passion and she seemed to do the same.   
  
I wondered who gave her the job of being Tk's and my lawyer anyway.   
  
Of course I got a *lot* of fan mail too, though the band had split up after a while when I simply didn't have the time for it any longer. I kind of missed the guys and I guessed that they probably were hunted down by thousands of gossip magazines that wanted to know eeeverything about the split-up and about me.   
  
My very own stalker, Jun, popped in from time to time, but wasn't allowed to enter my room, which I was incredibly thankful for...   
  
And now, the clock showed exactly one twenty-nine and fifty two seconds pm ...   
  
Countdown: Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One... aaaaand...:   
  
"Mr Ishida. I have news on the 'situation'."   
  
I honestly wondered if she stood outside the door, waiting until the clock was exactly one thirty pm, just so that she would be right on time and appear to be the most punctual person alive.   
  
"Good day to you to." I said, crossing my arms.   
  
Ms Matsuoka didn't take any notice of my words and continued speaking in her 'matter-of-fact'-tone.   
  
"I have found one suitable family that will accept one child and one orphanage, which I think will be fitting."   
  
My heart almost stopped beating.   
  
Were they going to split Tk and me up?   
  
No.   
  
No...   
  
"I have taken the autonomy to decide that your brother will be sent to the Yu family and that you, mr Ishida, will be taken to the orphanage. Just sign this paper... right there." ms Matsuoka handed me a bunch of papers. It looked like some sort of contract, but I didn't even move so she just laid it in my lap.   
  
"What... What is this?" I stammered, looking up at ms Matsuoka, who seemed to enjoy the fact that I was shocked and didn't like it a single, teensy weensy bit.   
  
"It's the contract. Since you are the eldest of you and your brother, you are the one who get to sign the paper." she smiled, I swear it was one of those evil smiles that only truly sinister persons or wicked Digimon are able to smile.   
  
"I-I need time to think..." I said, staring blankly on the papers in my lap. I still hadn't touched them.   
  
"Of course you do, mr Ishida. It's *such* a *big* decision for you to make."   
  
Okay, so I knew for sure now that she hated me.   
  
I felt her hand on my shoulder, but it didn't feel the least comforting, and it wasn't meant to either.   
  
Without another word, ms Matsuoka departed from the room, leaving me alone in the suddenly so uncomfortable hospital bed.   
  
  
  
  
Please review.   
  
/ThatGirl^_^ 


	7. Chapter seven

Fallin' to pieces part seven:  
  
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}  
  
I sat waiting for ms Matsuoka to leave Matt so that I could get into his room. The midnight-blue chairs were just that type that was standard for hospitals and not very comfortable.   
  
As usual when ms Matsuoka left Matt's room, she just closed the door behind her, not caring about that there were others who wanted to visit him.  
  
I gave her an odd glance when I saw that she looked strangely pleased with herself.  
  
But what could I do about that?   
  
I decided to drop it, not wanting to start a discussion with 'ms-super-bitch-Matsuoka'.  
  
Her high-heeled shoes clapped harshly against the floor as she walked away.  
  
Getting up from the chair I had been sitting on in the corridor, I suddenly heard her stop.  
  
I turned my head towards her.  
  
Yep, she had stopped, that annoyingly satisfied smile still on her lips.   
  
I sighed.  
  
"Please don't disturb mr Ishida, whoever you are. I believe he needs time to think. Alone." ms Matsuoka said with her typical unsympathetic voice.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm under oath" she said.  
  
I *so* could have chosen to say some well picked words to her then!  
  
Ms Matsuoka turned around and continued walking away, her high-heels clapping against the cold hospital floor louder than ever.  
  
"Man, what's her problem?" I muttered under my breath.  
  
I looked at the shut door before me. Should I go in anyway?  
  
I checked my wristwatch. Nope, it was already a quarter to two pm. Math class started in fifteen minutes.  
  
As I darted away down the hall, I silently wondered what ms Matsuoka had been talking about and decided to check in on Matt later this afternoon, when school was out.  
  
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_  
  
"RRRRRRRRRRRR!!!"  
  
Books and desks slammed shut and chairs scraped against the floor, as all of the teens in the history class got ready to leave for the day.  
  
The helpless teacher, mrs Whatever-her-name-is, shouted about the homework where she stood by the white-board, writing the words 'The Crimean War' on it.  
  
Aha, so *that* was the war we were learning about.  
  
I, just like everybody else, jogged out in the corridor determinate to make it to my locker before it was too crowded in here to reach it.  
  
Wondering if I should wait for Sora, I opened my locker and shoved the books I needed into my schoolbag. I remembered that Sora's last lesson ended in another eighty minutes, so I made my way out of the school.  
  
Since my new house was to be found so near the school, I went there at first and got the keys to the old Ishida-apartment.  
  
Tk, who lived with us for the moment, had asked me to fetch some books for Matt in there. I think that he was still a bit afraid to go into *that* apartment by himself.  
  
The poor boy was always so afraid to be in the way for our family, but the truth was that I believed that my parents were really happy to have another child in the house.  
  
I had overheard them one night when they were talking and now I know that they had wanted a bigger family, like four or even six kids, but that something had happened when Kari was born that made Mum sterile.  
  
I can't deny the fact that I secretively wished that they would adopt the Isida/Takaishi brothers, or at least let them live with us. Just imagine how fun that would be!  
  
It was easy to find the keys. Tk had laid them by a note on the kitchen table.  
  
I grabbed the keys and a big cookie from a jar on the counter.  
  
Quickly pressing the whole cookie into my mouth, I got outside again and locked the door.  
  
I stretched out my arms, yawned and heard my back make a slightly cracking sound.  
  
The street was covered with orange, red, yellow and brown leafs that had fallen from the trees and I felt that it wasn't very much time left until the first snow would come.  
  
I pulled my coat closer around me and shivered a little. It was colder today than yesterday, but the sun was shining anyway.  
  
Though I enjoyed the summer, I had always liked it when the time of the year came when sun would go down early and the stars would be out by five o'clock.  
  
I was pretty close to Matt's apartment now and when I turned right by a corner, I could see the tall block of flats.  
  
Speeding up my steps, I was soon by the entrance to the building and swiftly pressed in its code. I knew that code by heart because I used to spend lot of time in Matt's apartment...  
  
Well, that was before this whole thing with his family began, but I sincerely hoped that now, we would have an even better friendship than before.  
  
I stepped into the building and was welcomed by the warmth from inside.  
  
As always, I was too lazy to climb the stairs, so I got pressed the elevator button and waited for it to reach the bottom floor. It didn't take too long and I got inside of it.  
  
Sighing, I remembered the last time I had been in this building.  
  
For a moment, I almost thought that when the doors slid open, I would see the same read stains and open front door as that night.  
  
But that wasn't the case. Someone had wiped the blood away and the door was closed.  
  
I noticed that the little sign that said 'Ishida' still was there. The landlord would probably tear it away in a couple of days.  
  
I checked the door and it was locked.  
  
Well, what had you expected?, I thought and shoved my hand into the pocket of my jacket, searching for the keys. I felt something smooth and metallic and picked it up. And yes, it was the keys.   
  
Wondering how it would look inside of the apartment, I unlocked the door.  
  
When I carefully looked inside, I saw that someone had been in here to swab away the small red puddles.  
  
Actually, the whole place was cleaned up.  
  
It looked kind of weird because it was never this clean when the Ishida's lived here.  
  
No lamps were on either, which increased the eerie impression of it all. Not a shoe thrown carelessly on the floor in the hall and no old papers or magazines on the kitchen table.  
  
I hurried into Matt's room and picked out a few books and some things I knew he treasured. Then I laid them into the big shoulder bag I had taken with me.  
  
For a second, I considered if I should just go and take a quick look in the bathroom, but decided against it.  
  
So I hurried out of the silence of the apartment, almost forgetting to lock the door of it, and started to walk in the direction of the hospital.  
  
Luckily for me, Matt's old apartment block was located only about one or maybe two kilometres away from Odaiba hospital and if I hurried all of the way, I could make it in a few minutes.  
  
I finally saw the white building. It was positioned right by the green park where I used to play soccer.  
  
Looking up at Matt's window on the second floor, I went through the large doors and into the hall where I, not caring about informing the nurse in the reception that I was going to make a visit, went right towards the elevator.  
  
"Wait, I'm going too!" I yelled and the people who already stood inside of it. A chubby doctor with a black suitcase stopped the doors from sliding shut. Many of the ones inside sighed, grimaced and rolled their eyes when I had to get the bag with all of Matt's things into the small space too.  
  
I was glad that I only had to get to the second floor.  
  
Being pressed against the wall, the rather big bag and the full-size, round belly of that doctor right in the side of my face, I was feeling pretty crowded in the jam-packed elevator. I wondered if the elevator really could carry the whole weight of us all.  
  
After what had appeared to be like an hour, I stepped out of the small scope and took a deep breath, at last being able to suck in air again.  
  
I swung the bag over my shoulder and started to walk down the hall, probably looking like some kind of wannabe Santa clause.  
  
I hoped that Matt's *legal representative* would allow visitors now, or even better; that she wasn't there.  
  
Knocking on the door of room 306, I put the heavy bag down on the floor beside me and then simply dragged it inside when I opened it.  
  
"Hey, Matt. Tk asked me to pick up some stuff for you from the apartment..." I started to say cheerfully, but when I turned around, my spirits fell.  
  
Matt didn't look too very happy at all. He usually sat up in the bed, reading, watching TV or something, but now he just laid there, the blankets almost covering his entire body and his head.  
  
"Dude, what's up?" I stopped struggling with the bag and went over to him.  
  
A deep, depressed sigh was the only reply I got.  
  
I decided to wait until Matt started talking out of free will. That was usually a good strategy.  
  
I waited and waited... And then I waited some more, but not one word escaped my friend's lips.  
  
Okay, I admitted, waiting wasn't working this particular time.  
  
"Matt. What's wrong? You haven't said a thing since I came."  
  
He didn't answer.  
  
I sighed sharply.  
  
"Tell me what's wrong. Just spell it out", I pulled the blanket off his head.  
  
In return to this, Matt jerked away so that he was lying on the opposite side, not facing me.  
  
"Read the papers, okay", he said, anger and hurt clearly displaying in his voice.  
  
"Which papers?"  
  
"Those on the table."  
  
I looked around, and then saw a little bunch of white papers, every single one of them filled with text.  
  
Quickly scanning them through, I slowly started to understand what they were about.  
  
"I got them from ms Matsuoka" Matt muttered from under the blanket, which once again covered his face.  
  
"Uh... Is she serous? I-I mean..."  
  
"Yes, trust me; she's serious"  
  
"Have you told Tk?"  
  
"No"  
  
"How do you think he'll react?" I asked, putting the document back on the table before me.  
  
"He'll be sad, disappointed in me." Matt answered.  
  
"But have you signed them yet?"  
  
"No, not yet. But ms Matsuoka came by maybe an hour or two ago, saying that if I didn't before five o'clock, she'd do it for me", Matt said miserably.  
  
"Can she do that? Is that really legal?" I was stunned. She couldn't just break the two brothers up! They were the two closest siblings I had ever met, probably even closer than Kari and me!  
  
"I guess it is... But I can't do it! I just can't!" Matt turned around in the bed, finally facing me. I could see the desperation in his eyes.  
  
"It's only ten minutes left..." I stated, checking my wristwatch.  
  
"I know!" Matt banged his head down in the pillow and stayed there.  
  
I wondered if he was crying, but when he lifted it again I saw that he wasn't. But that didn't mean that his face didn't hold that despairing expression still.  
  
I didn't know what to say. What could I tell him? To sign those damned papers? It wouldn't make any difference in the end, anyway.  
  
I checked the time again. Four fifty-six.  
  
"Dude", I gave his arm a light push.  
  
"What?"  
  
"There's gotta be something you can do..."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
I bit my lower lip. I didn't know.  
  
"Like um..." Matt watched my attempts to figure something out.  
  
"Let's face it, Tai. My family is screwed"  
  
Before Matt could say something more or I could object, the sound of the door cut me off.  
  
"Mr Ishida." ms Matsuoka said and then gave me an annoyed glare. She went directly to the table and went through the document. "I see you haven't signed it" she stated in her characteristic matter-of-fact tone and picked up a pencil from nowhere.  
  
In less than a half second, both her name and her acceptance of the adoption of Tk and Matt were written on the last line of the last paper.  
  
Matt gasped, his whole world probably falling apart in an instant. He stared with blue eyes wide of shock at the document in ms Matsuoka's long-nailed fingers, hopelessness written all over his face.  
  
Tears welled up and ran down his cheeks.  
  
All I could think of was how a person could be so cold. She didn't even blink!  
  
"I will bring the Yu family here tomorrow so that they can bond with Tk. When you're well and out of the hospital, I will bring someone to pick you up and bring you to the orphanage", ms Matsuoka said, laying the papers down on the small table that she had picked them up from, "Well that was all, mr Ishida, I will see you tomorrow then."  
  
And with that, ms Matsuoka left Matt and me alone in the room.  
  
The last beams of the sun shone ironically brightly and happily into it, and Matt once again let his head fall limply to the pillow, but this time he didn't care enough to lift it up again.   
  
  
  
  
  
Please review.  
  
/ThatGirl^_^ 


	8. Chapter eight

A/N: I'm really sorry for not updating for the past weeks! I've got a lot of stuff goin' on with school (our grades are being decided... and that means: tests, tests, tests, tests!) and that caused me a major writer's block. But here it is!  
Chapter eight! *finally*  
  
(Ps. Thanks to every body who have reviewed this...(especially Ron's Girlfriend and KoNy) You have really encouraged me to keep writing!)  
  
  
  
  
Fallin' to pieces part eight:  
  
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}  
  
It was pitch black in the room. I wouldn't even be able to see my hand if I held it out before me. The dark blind was dragged down over the window, covering it completely, so the neither the moon nor the stars were able to offer any light either.  
  
The pillow was still felt damp against my cheek from all the tears I cried earlier. I had really cried a lot the past days... Were my reasons for it enough?  
  
... I think so...  
  
Sighing, I rolled over, hissing in slight pain as the upper arm with the stitches in it was pressed against the mattress.  
  
I couldn't sleep.  
  
There were too many things on my mind. For instant: How I would explain to Tk that ms Matsuoka had decided to send him to a new family and me to an...  
  
I sighed.  
  
An orphanage.  
  
I had read all kinds of stuff in the papers about how horrible it was to live in one, how kids had been abused, how they had grown up to be murderers and robbers and gangsters...  
  
Would I turn out to be like that too?  
  
And had ms Matsuoka talked to Tk yet? I had tried to call him a couple of times but no one had answered the phone.  
  
Then I remembered the bag with my stuff that Tai had brought to the hospital. I hadn't gone through it yet and it still lay by the door where Tai had placed it.  
With a somewhat low whimper of pain, I sat up in the bed. I put my feet down on the cruelly cold floor and tiptoed to the bag. Sitting down on my knees beside it, I opened it and started to dig.  
  
Papers, pencils, CD's, books... nope, nothing there...  
  
I opened the zipper to one of two side-pockets.  
  
Photos, more CD's, hair-gel... Hm, wait a second... Yep, there it was.  
  
I took the small, green object I had been searching for in my hand. It was my mobile.  
  
There was almost no battery left and I had missed about nineteen calls. There was also a numerous number of text messages.  
  
Probably from fans, I thought.  
  
But when I started to look for the cell phone, I hadn't wanted to check if I had gotten some SMSs. I had wanted to send my little brother a message to tell him what was going on before ms Matsuoka got the chance to do so sooner than me.  
  
Of course I'd rather call him and tell him personally, but --I looked at the clock-- it was two in the morning.  
  
I had to make it short because my mobile only allowed one hundred and sixty letters, but I didn't want it to be impersonally.  
  
I don't know how long I sat up, pondering about what to write. At last, I figured something out and sent it.  
  
Finally tired, I decided to check those unread messages later.  
  
My head dropped to the soft pillow again and after a while, I drifted away into a dreamless sleep.  
  
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_  
  
Even though my eyes were still shut, I felt the light that came flooding in through the window. I tried for a while to remain asleep, but after only a small number of seconds, that became impossible and my eyes fluttered open. I yawned and blinked a few times, attempting to adjust to the daylight.  
  
Turning my head to the left, I saw something small and shiny green in my bed, right beside the pillow. I blinked more, my tired, newly awoken eyes only seeing blur.  
  
And then, suddenly:  
  
"EEEE, EEEE, E, EEEEE!!!" the thing beeped a silly little melody, buzzing and vibrating at the same time.  
  
On the spot, I sat up, my heart beating like crazy. The 'thing' was my mobile, which I probably had left in the bed before I went to sleep.  
  
I grabbed the phone, mumbling a drowsy "Hello"  
  
"Hi, Matt" I recognised the voice immediately.  
  
"Oh hi, Sora"  
  
"I'm sorry I haven't come to visit for so long... I've been busy in school", she made a quick pause, laughing a bit, "Stupid teachers worse than slave drivers!"  
  
"Okay..." I could sense that there was some other reason why she had called me now too.   
  
"Well..." Sora said. An awkward silence settled. But she decided to break it before I did.  
  
"I... uh, have seen the magazines." she said.  
  
"Magzines?"  
  
"You... You haven't heard of them?"  
  
"No. Sora, what are you talking about?"  
  
"I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have said anything..."  
  
"Sora, continue. Please?"  
  
I could hear her take a deep breath.  
  
"Maybe it's best if I come to the hospital to see you?" I certainly didn't have a problem with that!  
  
"Sure"  
  
"Okay"  
  
"Okay"  
  
"Bye, see you"  
  
"Yeah, you too"  
  
I hung up.  
  
Now, what was that all about?  
  
  
{~Sora's POV~}  
  
*Click*  
  
I put down the wireless phone on the desk in my room, sighing. He didn't know about the papers?  
  
I had been out on a walk earlier and the whole thing was plastered all over the teen magazines!  
  
Everybody must know about it now... Poor Matt...  
  
Getting up from the chair that I had been sitting on, I snatched my gloves from the desk; it really was colder outside now!  
  
"Bye mum!" I yelled right before I opened the front door. "I'm going to visit Matt!"  
  
I know that mum heard me, because I heard her chuckle quietly in the kitchen.  
Exhaling noisily, I wondered why all mothers were as they were and then made my way to the hospital.  
  
  
{~Tk's POV~}  
  
I read the message on my mobile once again.  
  
"Tk, ms Matsuoka decided to split us up. Sorry, I couldn't do anything about it. Can we talk? I love you  
/Matt"  
  
Those were the exact words of it.  
  
I felt numb. Was he serious?  
  
I had read the message over and over again, but it still didn't seem to make any sense.  
  
Split us up?  
  
No...  
  
No, no, no, no, no!  
  
I suddenly felt a terrible fear build up inside of me. A fear of losing the only one in my family I had left... Of being sent away from all that I knew and a fear of what lay before me.  
  
The question that had haunted my mind from the very day dad had died spun in my head. *What would happen to us now?*  
  
No matter how hard I had tried to live up to my crest, that task almost felt too heavy for my shoulders now.  
  
I had to get to Matt... I wanted him to say that this wasn't true, but on a second thought, why would he lie about such a thing?  
  
As in a daze, I got up from the warm, comfortable bed in the Kamiya house and got dressed.  
  
Quietly sneaking out of the room on the second floor, careful not to awaken Kari or Tai, I could hear Tai's snores through his closed bedroom door. He had apparently come home late last night, so late that both Kari and I had already gone to bed.  
  
I wrote them a note and left it on the table in the kitchen. After that, I took one of the extra keys from a little shelf in the hall. Not forgetting to lock the door behind me, I ran off to the hospital.  
  
On my way there, I couldn't help but to notice today's headlines on many popular magazines.  
  
"Former Teenage Wolves singer Matt Ishida's family shattered", or "Lawyer: Yes, it is confirmed"  
  
I felt my blood boil at the latter.  
  
As I hurried down the street I felt many curious eyes on my back, probably wondering if I really was the brother of *the* famous rock star. I wasn't even surprised to see two girls sitting on a bench, their black mascara running down their cheeks, with a copy of the latest 'World of Pop' (a picture of my brother's band on the cover and the thick, black headlines 'What will happen to the girls' favourite?' plastered all over it) in their hands.   
  
Feeling tears prick my eyes, I stubbornly blinked them away. Wasn't there anything called privacy in this world? I sped up my pace until I was jogging.  
  
Because of Tai and Kari's house being so close to Matt's hospital, I quickly got to the entrance of it.  
  
I took the stairs to the right floor and found his room without more ado.  
  
"Matt?" I said when I entered it. He was half-sitting in his bed, eyes closed, but at the sound of my voice, he opened them.  
  
"Hey, Squirt..."  
  
I picked up my mobile as I to show him what I wanted to talk about and he looked down at his hands.  
  
"Matt... onii-san..." I whimpered, taking a few shaky steps forward so that I could sit down on the bed, beside him.  
  
No words were needed at this point; just one look at my elder brother's sad face was enough.  
  
  
{~Matt's POV~}  
  
"Matt... onii-san..." I heard Tk whimper, sitting down on my bed.   
  
I didn't dare to look up at his face.... Oh, if I hadn't come home too late that night... And if that gang hadn't robbed me and then knocked me out...  
  
I wanted to scream, but I kept silent. 'For Tk', I thought. 'No negative thoughts... No one needs those. There's always some hope left, even if you can't see it'  
  
Then another soft whimper from my little brother interrupted my thoughts. A tear fell down on the white hospital-mattress.  
  
"Hush, Teek... Don't cry," I whispered, at last looking up from my hands in my lap.  
  
But those words didn't seem to help as Tk's quiet tears increased into open  
sobs. His head hanging low and his shoulders shaking, he buried his face in his hands.  
  
Hurrying to wrap my arms around him, I rocked him back and forth, humming some soft tune that had suddenly popped into my head.  
  
The seconds that floated by soon became minutes, which became more minutes... I don't know just how long we sat there, but suddenly, a low knock on the door made Tk jump. He rapidly wiped his tears away.  
  
"C'mon in" I called, from the bottom of my heart hoping that it wasn't ms Matsuoka who wanted to get in. As I saw a familiar redhead enter, I drew a small sigh of relief.  
  
"Hi, Matt, Tk" Sora said, noticing that my younger brother also was here. She took a seat on a chair and gave me a questioning glance as if to say, "You told him yet?" I nodded silently.  
  
"Sooo... Umm, how are you doin'?" She asked, offering a slight smile.  
  
"Fine", Tk and I said in one mouth, "I guess" I finished.  
  
Tk turned his face away towards the wall and I simply fixed my eyes on my hands again. Yet I couldn't help but feeling sorry for Sora; the atmosphere was certainly not very happy in the small hospital room...  
  
Then I felt a light hand on my arm.  
  
  
{~Sora's POV~}  
  
I carefully laid a hand on Matt's arm. 'Think, think!', I commanded myself, but I didn't know what to say. Actions often say more than words... I let my hand remain on his arm, hoping that it could provide him some support, some comfort.   
He didn't push me away.  
  
"What was it you wanted to tell me?" Matt suddenly asked, at length looking up.  
  
"Oh, yes," I started to dig around in the small bag I had brought. I couldn't believe that I had almost forgotten the real reason I had come for! Finally finding what I was looking for in the bag, I showed him the magazine.   
  
Matt stiffened a bit when he saw the headlines of it. Printed in thick black letters, it said: "Lawyer: Yes, it is confirmed" Under those words one could read something in relation to the "extremely tragic story about ex-singer Yamato Ishida's family"  
  
Matt's lips were pressed tightly together and his eyes were narrowed.  
  
"I'm... I'm sorry," I said, still not knowing what the right thing to say to him was.  
  
Matt only drew a shaky sigh. "Nah, don't be... You haven't done anything," he clenched his hands, "It's that... that Matsuoka-monster who is the-"  
  
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, as a hard knock on the door interrupted him. Ms Matsuoka stepped in.  
  
"Well, speak of the devil," Matt muttered under his breath.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Okay, I know that that completely sucked. Buuut, please REVIEW it anyway! Remember: the first stuff that is written after a writer's block is a bit... well, not as good as the other stuff may be...  
  
/ThatGirl^_^ 


	9. This chapter uploaded the wrong way, so ...

~*!HaPpY NeW YeAr!*~  
  
  
  
  
Fallin' to pieces part nine:  
  
  
  
{~Tai's POV~}  
  
Is there anything that's better than a warm, cosy bed in the morning? Well, only if you don't have to get to school, that is... The answer is no. At least I think so!  
  
I wasn't really awake yet, being more asleep than up and about.  
  
Rolling over in the bed, I suddenly found that the bed... well, wasn't there under me any longer.  
  
With a loud thud 


	10. The *real* chapter nine...

~*!HaPpY NeW YeAr!*~

A/N: Grr... Stupid ff.net screwed up with uploading chapter 9. I really tried to fix it, but I came to the conclusion that it was rather impossible task for me(not very good with computers) so I decided to post it _again_... *sigh* Hope it works! I'll just have to wait and see, I guess...

Fallin' to pieces part nine:

{~Tai's POV~}

Is there anything that's better than a warm, cosy bed in the morning? Well, only if you don't have to get to school, that is... The answer is no. At least I think so!

I wasn't really awake yet, being more asleep than up and about.

Rolling over in the bed, I suddenly found that the bed... well, wasn't there under me any longer.

With a loud thud, I landed on the floor, all tangled up in the white quilt and a plastic figure of a spider somehow stuck in my hair. I blinked, thinking that I probably should try and *organize* my room a tad more. Or a lot more... Or maybe I could just leave it be... I mean I honestly liked it as it was...

When I had gotten myself out of the quilt and in some way managed to get the plastic spider out of my hair, I yawned deeply, then stretched hearing my back making small cracking noises.

"Kaa~," I stopped for a second, letting another yawn escape my lips, "~riii?"

"Yeah?" my sister answered from downstairs.

"Don't eat the last of the bread!"

I didn't receive a reply, but didn't really care; Kari was way too sweet to let me starve. Or at least that was what I thought.

When I, about fifteen minutes later, climbed down the stairs, she had just finished the last piece of bread we had in the house.

"Kari!" I pouted, accusingly looking at her, "When did you start eating so much?"

"Don't worry, there's some yoghurt in the fridge," Kari said, then smiled, "I've learned from the best"

"Yeah, yeah..." I quickly found the yoghurt and sat down by the table.

We ate under silence for a while, but then Kari spoke.

"So, how's Matt doing?" she asked.

"Oh, he's doing fine I guess," My voice trailed off as I remembered what ms Matsuoka had decided about him and Tk, "Though that lawyer is making everything a *lot* worse"

"What about him?"

"She," I said, putting some extra empathising on the word, "has decided that Tk will be adopted by some family and that Matt will be sent to an orphanage."

"What!?" Kari nearly spluttered milk all over the table.

"You heard right. That cow signed the contract herself when Matt didn't! I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes!" I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled, "I hate her!"

Irritably gulping down a few more spoons of the strawberry yoghurt, I heard Kari say something.

"Come again?"

"Is she really allowed to do that?" Kari repeated.

For a moment, I just sat there, my mind suddenly seeing a flicker of hope.

"I... I don't know," I hesitated. Kari looked at me. "But we can always find out..."

{~Matt's POV~}

"As you already know, mr Ishida will be out of the hospital on Monday," ms Matsuoka told us in her customary strict voice. "I have informed the Yu family of this and they will be here to take you, Mr Takaishi, to you new home three o'clock. And your ride to the orphanage," she turned her stone face to me, "will arrive at the same time, so that you two have the time to say goodbye."

None of us said a thing. What could we have said anyway? 

'No, I don't wanna!'

Sure.

Ms Matsuoka talked, no scratch that... Ms Matsuoka doesn't 'talk', she *informs*. So ms Matsuoka informed us some more, but I didn't really listen to what she had to say. Before I knew it, she had risen from the chair, and exited the small room, the clapping sounds of her high heels echoing in the corridors. As every time, she had kept her visit short and very formal.

Crossing my arms over my chest in an almost defeated way, I let out a heavy sigh. God, I hated her guts. What did she have against us? Hadn't we been through enough without her coming along, smashing another toboggan of problems in our heads?

I felt so small. As if the ground I was standing on was dissolving right under my feet and that there was nothing left for me to hold on to... Maybe that was one of the things that parents were supposed to do for you? To be a steady rock for you to hold on to when you felt like nothing else was there. To hug you and tell you that everything would turn out okay.

Suddenly, it was like if there was an empty space around me. A space where someone would have been, giving me that back-up I really needed now...

Friends could offer some of that encouragement, but the part I missed was the one I couldn't get. The one that only a grown up could give me.

All I could prey for was that this "Yu-couple" would provide Tk with that. Maybe they would let me come visit from time to time? I hoped so...

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

I sent the clock a quick glance before shoving the last of my belongings into the bag. It showed two fifty-one pm.

"You done?" I asked Tk. The doctors and nurses who worked in the hospital had been kind enough to let him spend the night here in my small room. He nodded, his face tear streaked and his eyes red and swollen. It was easy to tell that he felt just as bad as I did.

Swinging the bag over my shoulder, I sighed, almost wishing that I would just fall over so that Tk and I could stay here, if only for a little longer.

"Let's go then," Tk stood up and I opened the door.

The way through the corridors, down to the entrance hall was probably the longest one I have ever walked. But after what had seemed like an endless eternity of apprehensiveness, we got to the doorway, the lump in throat now nearly choking me.

When we were about to go out of the hospital, Tk grabbed my hand. I looked down on him. His blue eyes were set on two persons outside. Both of them seemed nice enough, the smiling and expectant man holding an arm around his chubby wife. Next to them, ms Matsuoka was, not a single emotion showing in her strict face, and last, a few metres away from the Yu's red Volvo, a white van was parked, one door open. The man sitting in the van didn't seem to be that bad, I guessed, but I didn't like him anyway.

Realizing that we had stopped, I made myself move again, making my and Tk's way out to the street.

At the first sight of Tk, mrs Yu squeaked excitedly and her husbands smile grew wider. When the guy from the orphanage saw me, he got out of the car and greeted me with a "Hey, kid"

Tk didn't return mr and mrs Yu's smiles and neither did I.

My lips tightly pressed together to prevent them from quivering, I stubbornly forced my tears back. 'No more tears, they won't do any good,' I kept on chanting in my mind. 

Bending down, I gave my brother, who didn't care about holding his tears back anymore, a hug, mumbled some comforting words and then turned around to walk to the van. It was the 'divorce-separation' all over again.

I turned my head around, just the slightest bit and saw that Tk had done the same. Our eyes met for a brief second, but in that instant I think that the world stopped moving and we became conscious of something... --We couldn't leave each other now... We had been through too much to give up... Far too much to be split up... We were brothers! I was the only *living* relative he had, and it was the same for me. No way that we were being parted, no way!

Before the both of us knew it, Tk was in my arms and we were clinging to each other for all that we were worth. I was sure that I heard mr and mrs Yu gasp and I could imagine ms Matsuoka's face frown disapprovingly, but for all that I cared, they could do whatever they wanted. As long as they didn't try to take my little brother away from me, that is.

After a few moments, the man from the orphanage started to approach us carefully. Knowing that he wanted to go and that he probably didn't have time for this, a sudden fear build up inside of me. Maybe if...

"Tk," I whispered, "Let's run"

Nodding his agreement, Tk got his legs moving and took off down the street, me being right behind him. We most likely caught they adults around us by surprise, as they just stood there for a short while, dumbfounded. A short while maybe, but it was only that much we needed to dash into a narrow alleyway.

Angry and upset voices were heard and if anyone had tried to follow us, we had in all probability already outrun them by the time we came to the old blocks were we had lived with dad.

"Onii-san... Where can we go? Where..." Tk panted, his hands on his knees. He looked up at me when I didn't answer.

"I... don't know," I finally admitted. "Maybe some friend will let us sleep at their place tonight?"

"Tai and Kari?"

"We can always ask them, I guess."

The walk to the Kamiya's house was in complete silence, neither Tk nor I finding anything good to say. Every time a car would drive by, we would jump or try and hide in the shadows, just in case they had decided to go out and look for us. The impression of it all was certainly tense.

After a small number of minutes we found ourselves at Tai and Kari's family's doorstep. I have to admit that I was a bit scared. I mean, what were Tk and I going to tell them anyway? What if their parents were home? Then they'd surely call ms Super-Bitch up, and she wouldn't be that happy about the fact that we ran away from the family that wanted to take Tk on and the guy who was supposed to take me to my new 'home'.

"Rrrr!" the doorbell rang. Tk had pushed it when I was too lost in my thoughts to focus on the outside world, a state I had become highly familiar with over the past weeks.

A voice, Tai's voice, and footsteps were heard inside of the house before Kari opened the front door.

Looking at us in slight surprise, she let us in without a word. I think she noticed the all-but-happy expressions on our faces.

"I didn't know you had gotten out of the hospital, Matt," Kari said. I only nodded. "But weren't you supposed to go to the orphanage..."

"We... We kind of ran." Tk cut her off.

"Hey, Kari. Who was it?" came Tai's voice.

"Tk and Matt," Kari motioned for us to follow her into the living room.

When we got into their actually pretty cosy living room, Tai lay in their old sofa, flipping through a thick book. 'Now that's not something that you see every day', I couldn't keep myself from thinking.

All of the room around the sofa and an armchair where Kari doubtlessly had sat was a disarray of papers, books and several boring-looking magazines. They were all over the floor, the carpet and the small table in front of the sofa. I was just about to ask what they had been doing with all this, but I didn't get a chance as Tai asked:

"What happened?"

Tk made his way to a big, square footstool and I found a nice spot on the carpet. Then we started to talk. Or more like Tk talked and I mostly sat quiet, filling him in on some stuff that he missed out as he spoke.

When Tk was done with the quick summary, he heaved a sigh, shoulders slumping.

"Sooo... What are you going to do?" Kari, who had taken her ordinary seat in the armchair, let her eyes travel from Tk to me, and then back to Tk again.

"Well, we kinda hoped that..." Tk trailed off.

"That we could spend the night here... Just one night," I continued.

"And then what?" Tai wondered, putting that thick book on the table.

I shrugged miserably. It was quiet for a while and then Tai spoke up.

"I'm totally fine with it. Kari?"

Kari nodded quickly. I honestly think she had a thing for my little brother.

"But what about mum and dad?" Tai scratched his head. "What if they call ms Matsuoka? Though I doubt that they would, but still..."

"Maybe we shouldn't say anything?" Kari said.

"But how are we going to have them here without our parents noticing?"

"I dunno, we'll have to figure something out."

The discussion continued. I didn't really listen. My head was pounding and I was starting to feel slightly nauseous and tired. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to run around and feeling stressed when you had just gotten out of the hospital. I *had* had a concussion of the brain, you know, and the best thing to cure a concussion of the brain is not to lie sleepless at the night, worrying. 

Feeling my eyelids getting heavier and heavier, I suddenly became aware of how warm it was inside of the house. Man, was I tired...

The voices of Kari, Tai and occasionally Tk started to grow fainter and gradually disappeared. My head dropping slowly, my entire body seemed to loose it's feeling and then bit-by-bit shut down.

I don't know how long that peaceful state lasted, but suddenly, someone's hand poked my shoulder.

"Hey," More poking. "Hey, Matt. Pokey, pokey,"

Ugh, wouldn't they just leave me alone?

"Wake up, Mattie,"

God, I hated that nickname.

"Poookey, pokey..."

'Leave me alone already!' I mentally shouted. The soothing mist that had surrounded me started to clear up.

"Matt, wake up," someone said and started tapping on my back.

"Cut it out..." my voice came out groggily, fitting how I felt. Almost against my own will, my eyes cracked open. I saw that the carpet was abnormally close to my face.

A pair of hands dragging me up into a sitting position, a chuckle and a giggle let me know that Tai and Kari were the ones who had woken me up. 'Tai was surely the one who poked me...' I thought vengefully, my head still spinning a little. I should have figured though. 

Stretching, I blinked sleepily. That was followed by my friends' laughs. I realized how I must've been looking; stretching, yawning and my hair almost certainly tussled. Not the ordinary way you more often than not pictured me. Strangely enough, I found myself laughing too. The first time in a long time I laughed... and it actually felt really good.

But the laughter died hastily as we heard someone at outside, on the doorstep.

"Mum and dad!" Kari looked out in the hall. "Quickly, uh... hide in here,"

She opened a small door under the stairs. The sound of a key being pushed into the keyhole was heard. "Hurry!" The key turned inside of the lock.

Tk and I got inside of the small 'room'. It was hard to fit in there, and when the door closed, it was pitch black. 

Then the front door opened.

"Hi, mum, dad." Kari greeted.

"Umm, hi, kids," mr Kamiya answered, sounding a bit puzzled.

A/N: *sigh* Sooo, what do you think? Still good, bad? Please review!


	11. Chapter ten

A/N: I'm sooo very sorry for not updating in such a long time… again… I hope there are still some people that haven't forgotten all about this fic!!! Without your really great reviews, I don't think I would have managed to write anything at all… Thank you! You're the best.

Fallin' to pieces part ten:

{~Tai's POV~}

What had we gotten ourselves into?

"Hurry!" Kari hissed as the key turned. In the same second Matt and Tk had gotten into the small space under the stairway, she closed it.

Then the front door opened and in stepped our parents.

"Hi mum, dad." Kari said cheerfully.

"Umm... hi, kids," dad answered. He eyed us strangely. I was so, so, so extremely sure that he had seen right through us there and then, but to my relief he dropped it and went into the kitchen, putting down the plastic bags of food he and mum had bought while mum went into the living room.

A half gasp, half shriek from our mum later, Kari and I hurried into the messy room quickly telling her that we would clean it up before she could blink.

When she had left, I scooped up a bunch of magazines. 

"I still can't believe we haven't found anything worth knowing for us in these." I said, glancing at my sister as she put that thick book I had been looking through before, back into the bookshelf where we had found it. At this very moment, everything in our house that had something to do with laws and such was gathered in the same room we had to clean now. But it probably wouldn't take such a long time. All we had to do was to carry everything up to our rooms, where we could finish it later.

"I know," Kari replied. "Maybe we should ask mum and dad for help. I mean, they probably know a lot more of this stuff than we do."

I bit my lip.

"How are we going to help Matt and Tk if we don't have a clue how to?" Kari continued. She certainly did have a point.

"I'm just afraid that they'll..."

"We'll what, son?"

Kari and I spun around. Dad was standing there, his coat still on.

"Umm... nothing. We'll, uh, tell you later," I said, presssing a smile.

"Okay."

Dad turned and took a few steps until he was right by the small closet-like space under the stairs. He stopped and looked at it and Kari and I held our breaths.

"Honey, I think I'll put this old jacket away now. It has gotten too cold to wear it outside," he yelled to mum in the kitchen and took the coat off.

"Just throw it under the stairs and I'll see what to do with it later. You need a new one, anyway."

Dad rolled his eyes, most likely thinking that he did not need a new coat and that the old, worn out piece of clothing in his hands was perfectly fine. Either way, he reached for the small knob...

"Dad!" I yelled at the tip of my lungs. He looked at me confusedly. "I... I mean, uh, you just go and... and sit down in the living room. Kari and I are almost done with the cleaning and I can take care of that jacket for you,"

Dad's expression grew even more confused, if that was possible. He handed me the coat. I managed another smile, aware that it probably looked more faked than Matt's forced ones when Jun was following him, trying to do whatever just to touch him. I laughed silently when I thought about the panicked look on Matt's usually so calm and cool face.

Putting the coat somewhere else than the small space Tk and Matt were hiding in, I began to help Kari with the mess in the living room instead. 

Kari had almost gotten all the papers off the floor and had carried most of them to my room, telling me that my room was such a disarray anyway, that it wouldn't look suspicious.

{~Tk's POV~}

My back has started to ache from the crouching position I'm in and all I'm longing for was to stretch it. It's pitch black in this small space too.

Boy, was I scared when Mr Kamiya was about to open the door!

Not that Matt noticed that. My elder brother had already fallen back to sleep by then.

I looked at him. He leant back against the wall, his neck bowing and his chin against his chest. It would just be cruel to wake him up, even though I was sure his neck would be sore when he finally stirred.

I could smell food now. It really smelled delicious and I realized that I was hungry. But as I sent a glance at Matt, I realized that I was also very tired...

{~Tai's POV~}

"Dinner's ready!" Mum shouted from downstairs. Kari and I competed to the kitchen where, to our surprise, our best porcelain was on the table. The food smelled mouth-watering and looked the same way too. Mum and dad had lit candles and on the table, there was even a tablecloth. We never have tablecloths if it isn't some special holiday or occasion. And it wasn't then. At least not that I knew of, and judging by the looks of Kari, neither did she.

"Sit down, kids. Help yourselves," mum said, her bubbly, cheerful voice giving away the fact that something big was going on. 

I took my ordinary seat by Kari, mum and dad sitting on the opposite of the table, facing us.

I did as mum told me and helped myself with the food and soon everyone had some on their plate. I took a bite.

"Wow, this is really good." was my first reaction.

"I'm glad you like it," mum said.

We ate a while under silence, the feeling that my parents had something important to tell us nagging my back. Then they finally spoke up.

"Your mum and I have something to tell you, kids,"

I was right.

"It's important." dad continued.

Right again. The only questions left now was if it was good or bad and what it was about.

"Important, but very good at the same time." mum filled dad in.

Kari and I didn't say anything, waiting for them to continue. Mum let out a small, nervous laugh.

"Maybe we should just spill the beans, hun'?"

"Yeah," dad agreed. "Tai, Kari, you're going to get a brother or sister."

My jaw dropped and I was sure my eyes were as good as popping out of their sockets. I was thankful for that I hadn't got any milk in my mouth at that point.

"But... I thought that you couldn't get any more children," I spluttered.

"We can't, but there is a thing called adoption." Dad chuckled.

I didn't really know what to say except for, "Wow... That's pretty big news."

"How old is the baby?" Kari asked.

"Oh, no! We're thinking about adopting someone from the orphanage. There are so many poor kids there..."

"Someone in our age then?" 

"Yes, maybe."

I was too surprised and shocked over the sudden and happy news I couldn't come up with something more to say. The rest of the dinner, mum and dad talked and talked about the adoption and I let Kari ask all the questions.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Just as I had gotten out of the kitchen, I grabbed Kari's arm.

"Hey, what if they can adopt Matt and Tk?" I whispered.

"Huh?"

"What if they can adopt Matt and Tk?" I repeated, still whispering, not wanting our parents to hear us.

"Adopt Matt and Tk?" Kari said, looking as if she hadn't understood my words.

"Yes!"

"Adopt them?" I saw that Kari finally started to get it. "Having them live here? With us?"

"Yeah,"

My sister's face cracked up in a wide smile.

"That would be..."

"Really great, I know," I smiled.

"What are you talking about?" mum wondered from the kitchen.

"Nothing!" We said in unison, a little louder, for her to hear us. Before we could tell them, we had to get Tk and Matt to our rooms where we could get them some food. They had to be really hungry by now. And it wasn't even sure that they'd want to adopt the two, because they was... well, *two* and not *one*.

We decided to wait until mum and dad had gone into the living room, watching the news.

After about twenty minutes, they had seated themselves in the sofa in front of the TV.

Kari quietly opened the small door under the stairs and I glanced behind my shoulder to see if mum and dad had noticed anything. They hadn't.

"Umm... Tai," Kari whispered.

"What?"

I went to my sister's side and looked into the mini-'room' Kari was pointing into. There, I saw Matt and Tk, of course, but what I hadn't expected was that the both of them would be asleep. Matt leaned on the wall and Tk leaned on Matt's shoulder, his facial expressions telling me that the dream he had wasn't pleasant. 

Bending down, I nudged Matt's shoulder, but as I got no reaction, I instead poked on Tk's arm.

"Wake them up." Kari said. "They can't stay here all night, then mum and dad will notice sooner or later."

I drew a soundless sigh and poked Tk's arm again. He at last started moving a bit.

"Tk," Kari whispered. The only reply that she got was a whimper from the back of his throat. It was easy to tell that she was worried.

"He's having a nightmare." I stated, tilting his head up with my hand, away from Matt's shoulder. That's when he woke up. His eyes shot open and he threw himself back at Matt, screaming.

I jumped back, startled by his alarmed shriek. My heart beat like the bass in one of those all-too-fast techno songs. 

"Shh!" Kari hissed, putting a finger in front of her lips, but it was already too late:

"Kari? Tai?" Our parents came running from the living room. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Then they saw Tk and Matt, who also had come round when Tk had screamed and thrown himself at him.

"Matt? And Tk?" mum sounded all at sea. Her eyes travelled from us, Kari and I, to them, Tk and Matt, and then back to us again.

"Umm..." was the most intelligent thing I could come up with to say.

"We, uh," Kari hesitated.

"There's a perfect explanation to this," I said dumbly.

{~Matt's POV~} 

Guess if I got a fright when I was woken up by Tk bumping his head into me and screaming. My neck hurt like hell, and I was still groggy when other voices were heard. At first I couldn't really make out what they were saying, but then, when the sleepy fog in my head had disappeared somewhat, I could understand them.  
"There's a perfect explanation to this," Tai reassured his parents, waving his hands in the air as to seem extra confident of that. Not that I believed he _actually_ _had_ a perfect explanation to this though.

Mr and Mrs Kamiya fixed their eyes on their son and an awkward silence settled.

"Umm…" Tai said maybe a minute or two later. 

"Umm…" Kari mimicked nervously. 

I didn't know if I should say something or if I should just stay quiet. But as neither Tai not Kari seemed to find something good to say or way to start, I decided to speak up. 

"Tk and I ran away." 

Tai and Kari's parents turned to me and I shifted awkwardly, not liking the sudden attention. I thought that it was the easiest to begin as Tk had begun when he had told Tai and Kari what happened.

"Well… we…" And starting with those to words, I blurted out the whole story, with some inputs from Tai and Tk occasionally. Everything. Ms Matsuoka, the Yu family, the hospital and dad… I didn't have to be too detailed, since Tai and Kari had talked about our 'situation' with their mum and dad before, and I was very thankful for that. It was the part about how Ms Matsuoka had signed that contract and by doing so, forcing Tk to live with the Yu's and me to live at the orphanage that the Kamiya parents got the most shocked to hear about.

That's when Kari and Tai decided to pop a question that I surely wasn't prepared for!

"Mum, dad… We just thought that as you're going to adopt some kid anyway…" Tai began.

"That you could… Well, adopt Matt and Tk." Kari finished, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Despite Kari's attempt of being unfussy and relaxed about it, I choked. I was lucky that I hadn't got anything in my mouth at that point, because then I would probably have spluttered it our all over the floor. Tk's grasp on my arm tightened until it more or less was painful and it almost looked as if Mrs Kamiya's eyes would pop out, her mouth gaping like a fish's.

"W-What?" Mr Kamiya stammered, shocked.

How much I'd ever want to live with the Kamiyas, I just couldn't believe that they could actually say yes. They would get _two_ new people living under their roof and _two_ new mouths to feed. I could only come up with reasons why they would tell us no and the only conclusion I could find if their answer would be yes, was that they'd only want to take care of one of us. If that was the case, I genuinely hoped that it would be Tk, in view of the fact that he doubtlessly would hate living with that Yu-couple, even if they weren't that bad people. I mean, I would surely loathe living in the orphanage, but… It would at least feel better if I knew that my brother was happy.

It felt like years had passed when the Mrs Kamiya opened her mouth again, this time to speak.

All I can remember of the seconds between when she opened her mouth and what she said was the silent plea I kept on repeating and repeating inside my head, "Please let them say yes, please let them say yes…"

Then came her words and answer…

A/N: Sooo… You want me to continue?

/ThatGirl


	12. Chapter eleven

A/N: I feel I should apologize *again* for being so extremely slow with updating… -_- And I hope there's still some people out there left who remembers this fic! Yeah well, anyway… Here it is: (*finally*…) :D

Fallin' to pieces part eleven:  
  


{~Matt's POV~} 

"I…" Mrs Kamiya hesitated. She looked at her husband and then turned to us again. "Could you wait here for a while? We… we need to discuss this." She finished.

My spirits fell. There was probably no way that they could take Tk and me in. No way. It was probably the best not to get my hopes up, or at least the most lenient.

Tai, Kari, Tk and I waited in silence for the Kamiya parents to come back. Their hushed voices were heard from the kitchen and out into the hall right by the living room where we sat.  
I rested my head in my hands, a killer headache starting to develop inside of it. I think I had really been under a lot of stress and pressure the last weeks. More than many teens ever have to go through. And I guessed that pressure just needed to take out its toll. Still being rather sleepy, the time went by faster for me, or at least that is my guess, as the others told me they thought it was one of the longest whiles they've ever gone through before afterwards.

Mr and Mrs Kamiya finally came out of the kitchen again. I tried to read the answer off their eyes, but their faces were sort of strange, 'mixed', or whatever, so I couldn't tell.

Mr Kamiya's hand crept to his wife's and held it firmly. He took a deep breath.

"We have decided," He made a short pause, swallowing, and looked at Tk's face and mine with slightly uncertain eyes, "that you two can stay."

At first, there was nothing. Not even one breath. But next, Tk let out a small ease-filled laugh. The tentative expressions of the adults disappeared and left behind only relieved, and maybe even thankful, faces. 

"Oh my GOD!" Kari then screamed and jumped up, dragging Tk up with her, and dancing around with my somewhat dazed brother. "You're going to be living with us!" After those words, he broke out of the trance-like state he had fallen into and began beaming the sun itself.

Tai grinned crazily at me, ear to ear, his mouth almost covering his entire face, and I smiled back, feeling laughter bubbling up inside of me, and knowing I must've looked just as silly as my friend.    
Then two sets of arms wrapped themselves around me and I got the sudden urge to cry instead. It just felt so extremely, tremendously… _good_, to get a hug of someone older and bigger and wiser than me. Just to be little for a moment. I shyly hugged Mrs and Mr Kamiya back, silently repeating 'thank you' over and over again to whatever, or whoever, would hear it.

{~Tk's POV}

_Things have worked out pretty fine. Matt and I live with Kari, Tai and their parents now, and I love it here! They are very nice to us, even though Tai and Kari had to give up their separate rooms so that Matt and I would have someplace to sleep. But we're planning to switch soon anyway, so that Kari and I get the same room and our brothers get to share instead._

_We went to our old apartment today and picked up some of our stuff. There was a good deal of things in there that were only junk too, so we had to throw many old gadgets away. _

_It was kind of hard at the start, to just walk in there. I mean, would it look the same as when we lived there? Would dad's bed still be unmade, like it had been when Matt found him? Would the blood he had coughed up still be on the floor? I was dreading._

_But when we got in there, we saw that someone had been there and cleaned the place up. That certainly was a relief._

_Mr and Mrs Kamiya (though they've told me and Matt to call them by their first names), helped with getting the larger furniture, like the beds, down to the van we rented, that was standing on the street. So now, we have our ordinary things in out bedroom, and that's nice. _

_And Mrs Matsuoka… Though she was critical and stern about it, she agreed to breaking that stupid contract _she _signed. Stupid cow… I still loathe her for what she did, and I can't understand why she did so, but I think it's the best for all of us to just look forward. To leave the past behind us. All we can do is to hope for the future, ne? So that's what I'm going to do._

I shut my journal and lay the pen down beside it as Kari opened the door and walked into the bedroom.

"Are you going with us to the market?" she asked. "Tai and Matt are already out somewhere."

"Sure." I answered, getting up from the desk I'd been sitting at.

I put the journal in one of the drawers I had marked with 'Tk'. 

"Come on then. We haven't got all day," Kari smiled. "The car is leaving in one minute,"

"I'm coming!" I smiled back.

Kari grabbed my arm and we hurried out of the house. 

{~Matt's POV~}

I was standing on the bridge, leaning on the banister. In my hands I held a slightly crumpled piece of paper.

"What is that?" Tai asked. He was standing by my side, eyeing the paper curiously.

"The contract." I unfolded and folded the paper over and over, looking at it thoughtfully. Then I ripped it into two.

"Wha- Matt! Why did you…?" Tai started, staring in me in shock.

"It's not like I need it or anything. Or like I even enjoy having it." I said, tearing the contract in smaller and smaller pieces. A feeling of ease followed with the actions. I let the small confetti-like bits of paper go and Tai and I watched them sail through the air, tossing and tumbling around as the wind wanted, until they landed in the river.

"So…" Tai began. He fiddled with the sleeves of his sweater and it wasn't hard to notice that he was trying to say something. "How was your dad? I-I mean, you haven't talked anything about him since he… y'know, past away… and… it's not good to keep stuff like these locked up inside and… Well, you know, I'm here for you and all that stuff." Tai finally blurted out.

I looked at him.

"Thanks, Tai, that's good to know." I said at last, giving him a smile. I then turned my face back to the water. I too knew that it probably was for the best to talk about it, but I had blocked it out for such a long time now. I feared it would just be like scratching an old wound open again. I bit my lip.

"I know you don't want to talk about it… But I'm not going to leave it." Tai said. That was one of the reasons to why we always fought, and one of the reasons to why we were best friends. "So, how are you?"

Silly choice of words.

"I'm fine." I said simply.

"And how was your dad?" 

I froze.

My breathing got heavier and a dull sort of 'ache' set in my chest.

"He was fine…" I said, my voice coming out a bit strangled. Tai waited. "I know he loved me, even though he wasn't very good at expressing it." I licked my dry lips and cleared my throat quietly. "Tk told me that dad had told him to let me know that. He had said that was sorry for all the times he had forgotten about me during holidays and other times. He had so bad conscience about it, and the fact that he couldn't make it up to me because he was too sick to even get out of bed the latest time, when his work didn't stop him from thinking and looking back at things that had happened. He told Tk to tell me when he was gone. And now… he is, and Teek've told me." I screwed my eyes shut to prevent the hot tears that were burning inside of the lids to come out.

Tai put a comforting hand around my shoulder.  
"Let's go home." He said. He was right. We could talk more there.

I nodded shakily, and while we started walking, I couldn't stop a few lines of a song to flicker by inside of my head....

****

****

**_"Though it's breakin' down and fallin' to pieces,_**

**_I'll see the sun, feel how the pain eases_**

**_You'll never know what tomorrow will bring you_**

**_And all that you really can do_**

**_Is to wait until new morning light comes_**

**_Is to wait until new morning light comes…"_**

****

****

****

****

A/N: Phew… There you go! The last chapter of this is finished, and with that, the whole fic^_^ 

So… what did you think about it? Good or… *bites her lip* …bad? Please tell me in your Reviews!****

(I wrote those sucky song lines… Just thought I'd tell you that, in case anyone's wondering… *though I doubt it!*^_^) 

/ThatGirl


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